Shadows of the Night

"Heretic is not the one who dies at the stake, but who sets it on fire."

- José Saramago, Portuguese Nobel laureate.

* * *

My name is Kira and I am a vampire. I have already forgotten the name that I had when I was an ordinary mortal. I had a normal childhood in a village of medieval Europe, but upon reaching adolescence, my beauty inspired envy among other women, as much lust among men. Shortly before my coming of age, somebody accused me of witchcraft, taking advantage of the presence of a Tribunal of the Inquisition in a neighbouring town. For several months, I was interrogated and although my guilt was never established, I didn't have the presumption of innocence of modern times, so I was sentenced to be burned to death. I even spent the last night of my childhood and my entire life tied to the stake, without food or water, to "meditate, pray and reconcile myself with God," after all, I was going to die a virgin.

Shortly after midnight, I saw shadows moving, and I only thought that it was a hallucination caused by the hunger, the thirst and the fatigue. But they approached to me, dressed with hoods, and I mistook them with the monks of the Holy Office, I supposed that they would hear my last confession. I was too weak to respond with insolence and I begged them:

"Father, brothers, help me! At least, give me some water."

One of them approached with a cup and I drank it eagerly, but when I realised that it was not merely water, it already was too late. The liquid was warm, not refreshing, with a mixture of very strange flavours, and it made me feel even thirstier. The man asked me:

"My child, who could have done this to thee?"

"Dost thou not know it, Monsignor? Are not thou a monk of the Tribunal...?"

"I am not. I am a traveller from a faraway land. I didn't know that these Christians still made human sacrifices."

"Sacrifices? What do you say, milord? Only pagans commit those sins."

"Poor girl, there is so much that you still do not know!"

I got ready to learn quickly, since incredible images came to my mind, as from a remote past, blended with recent events. At first, I thought that I was still delirious, but these visions tried to tell me many things in very short time.

Soon, I felt restless and one of the travellers began to say:

"Dost thou not feel something special? Like a new force."

"Yes, Sire, I feel a new force!"

I repeated mesmerised while I fought against the ropes, unable to break free. The hooded man gave me another little of his elixir and I broke the ropes as if they were made of paper. I marvelled from what I had just achieved, and I stared at him, and I gave him my soul. He asked me again:

"Where are those who left thee like this?"

"They are in the town church."

"Take us to them, in order to teach them a lesson."

My heart floated, because these men offered me the opportunity for revenge. I walked very quickly and they followed me. I hardly felt the ground under my feet. Upon arriving at the doors, a monk recognised me and tried to impede me with much arrogance, but I hit him and smashed him against the doors, demolishing them. The leader of the travellers observed:

"Such politeness, opening the door for us!"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha!"

They all laughed and I did too. The laugh sounded dark to me, but I was not frightened, but felt a morbid pleasure. We continued and every time that a monk or a soldier stepped in our way, those who accompanied me threw all of them toward the walls with superhuman force. That gave me much satisfaction. I asked:

"How strong ye are, gentlemen! Might ye be soldiers?"

They did not respond, but they rather continued fighting. They did not evade the churchmen, but they deliberately faced all those who defended the structure. We finally arrived to the great hall where so many slanders about me were said, about how I invoked to the Evil One and made sorcery of which I never had any idea. The walkers kept all the occupants of the monastery in line, and some, they raised them over their heads, making display of their power. They tried to cause them much pain and panic, but they avoided killing them too quickly. Two of my companions took by the arms the abbot who served as my judge, they stripped him of his robe and they laid him on a table. The leader told me:

"Is this the one who put thee out there, so the wild beasts devour thee?"

"Yesss...!"

I responded, enraptured because, suddenly, I found the monk an appetizing dish.

"Show him what it feels like!"

And I rushed on him. His penis was erect, because he felt something more than terror. And I looked at it and decided that it would be the first that would devour. I opened my mouth, already like the fangs of a wolf or a lion and I bit until pull his member off, and I swallowed it once and for all. The blood of the abbot sprouted and I drank it as if it were fresh water. Then I bit more parts of their body, until I reached his neck. There I stuck, and then, my teeth became canines and ripped his jugular vein in order to drain the last drop of his blood. When I satiated me, I looked at my surroundings and I saw how my comrades had done the same to the other inquisitors. Then I realised my transformation. In that moment, I was no longer a human being. The lord of the vampires went toward me and congratulated me:

"Well done, my child! Thou hast done justice tonight!"

And suddenly, he bit me. He surprised me a little, but it didn't hurt me. I bit him, and he loosed a laughter of pleasure. All those present echoed his laughter and we bit each other, no longer as an aggression, but as a game. I kissed and bit, and soon we all were left naked. Many hands caressed and they even clawed my breasts, thighs, buttocks and belly up to my virgin canal. Lips, tongues, fingers and penises were alternated in my cavities and I learned the pleasures of the flesh that the monks sought to deny me at first. Upon arriving to my climax, I oozed some of the blood that I drank, and I felt an unexpected fatigue, like drowsiness. It was dawning. Then, my master ordered us:

"Quickly, to the crypt!"

We hurried toward the basement of the abbey, and upon descending, the brothers placed timbers against the door to prevent somebody from entering. Finally, I lost consciousness...

Upon awakening, it was the evening, and we unbolted the basement in order to leave toward the forest. I felt hunger and thirst, but we kept moving away from the convent, and after reaching where nobody else could find us, I asked about what I had gone through. My Master answered:

"Dost thou not understand yet what this is? Search inside yourself."

And then, the images returned to my mind, but now the history that they related became very clear for me. The name of my redeemer is Ivor and I am now his lady. I knew my new name and I even perceived how my coven acquired this gift, this curse. He was a magician, a druid apprentice, to whom a certain priest of ancient times appeared and revealed him the secret of immortality: a certain potion, one of whose ingredients is human blood, was able to heal any wound that they might suffer, no matter how serious, but in exchange, it produced new vulnerabilities: our wounds could not be closed until the weapon is totally dislodged from us, and although we would not die even after spilling all of our blood, we would remain motionless until recovery. The sunlight irritates us a lot, and the first thing that we lose is the sight, leaving us very defenceless, but even so, we would not die, at least, not immediately; in fact, the agony is indescribable when the solar rays burn us. For all the rest, we are practically invulnerable. By the way, the wooden stakes, because of loose splinters, delay our healing much more.

For centuries, we wreaked havoc on many villages and some cities, killing innocents and guilty alike. The few who survived, wandered until finding us and we judged them, to see if they were worthy of joining us or it was necessary to give them the peace of death. Sometimes, the humans were able to find our hiding places in order to retaliate from any recent attack, and although few were able to face us in equal conditions, we also suffered casualties. Other covens clashed with us for control of certain territory, and the battles between us were truly formidable, since each one knew the strengths and weakness of the opponent. Once, I told my lover:

"I have grown weary of surviving like this."

"Art thou afraid?"

"At thy side, I fear nothing, my lord. It is only that I regret to destroy innocents lives."

"It is our fate."

"But, Master, every time that I see one of the small ones, it makes me remember how I felt when thou didst find me, so vulnerable."

Ivor was enlightened with an unsuspected wisdom, and he responded:

"Thou art right, my love! We don't have a right to cause the humans the suffering that they cause us. We could live without human blood, although we will no longer be so powerful. But living in peace has its own charm."

We emigrated from that country, and now, we watched certain individuals, not in order to devour them, but to make discreet alliances. They provided us cattle blood, obtained from slaughterhouses, and in exchange, we performed difficult jobs and we even defended them when other vampires and humans threatened them. A clan that we had to combat was that of the old master of Ivor, the sorcerer Gorath. Our change of attitude angered him a lot, and he accused me of having softened the black heart of my adored one. His true intention was to regain control over the soul of his apprentice, and I didn't permit it, because with him, I discovered the true love, and for that reason, I know that my Master is capable of true kindness. We repelled the evil coven after a bloody battle. When Ivor became vulnerable in the face of Gorath, I counterattacked, and upon nailing my fangs in his neck, I weakened him enough until my leader recovered and tossed the aggressor far away.

After the incident, more images came to my mind. Pagan rituals, including human sacrifices, and even memories of how the old magician developed the magic elixir. I even learned about new ingredients, but I didn't reveal them to my clan for the moment. Soon we arrived to the modern era, and already in the XX century, we became used to a faster night life, in which we interacted more with humans without drawing suspicion about our secret. They hired us as guards and "bouncers" at clubs, discos, banks and museums; we also served as bodyguards of celebrities and wealthy people, my attractiveness made me suitable for that function, I being beautiful but dangerous.

After an incident in which some mortal hoodlums attacked us and caused us serious losses, even the death of a human bodyguard, I realised that it was already necessary to regain our full power. But to murder again was unacceptable. Little by little, I realised which substance would return us our vigour: the human hormones. For that reason, we infused so much terror or anger in our victims before taking their blood. But there is another ingredient that produces a similar effect: the secretions that take place during the sexual act are rich in this hormones, and the emotions that it is necessary to cause in them are in no way unpleasant nor hideous.

Ivor admonished me after my failure and determined that I was not qualified for that kind of work. So he arranged for our employer to reassign me to provide security at dance halls, where the fights would not be so violent. I began to observe the clients and I saw the sexual practices that they carried out with the cover of the shadows, they almost looked like the orgies that we held after a successful manhunt. But we hardly had sex among us, except in couples, as myself with my kindred spirit, Ivor. It was more caresses and kisses, although we still clawed each other and we exchanged blood. We also felt orgasms and we ejaculated, also blood instead of semen.

One night, I followed a couple to their favourite hiding place and I saw how the woman sucked the member of the male, and then he ejaculated in her mouth. I could not see it, but I smelled the penetrating aroma, and I then saw how he reciprocated her. The secretions of the female spilled out in the mouth of the male, and they also discharged a characteristic scent. I searched my memory of the attack by Gorath and I knew that I also had to taste this. In a few days, I brought up my self-trust in order to invite a solitary individual, and he believed that I was a prostitute, and he offered me money, because he also desired sex that night. I remembered that the other ladies of the night usually charge twenty dollars for sucking penises, and after mutually assuring that none of the two was an undercover agent, I led him to the alley, I took his bill, and he pulled his pants and underwear down. His penis was more succulent than that of my first victim, but I restrained myself, since this time, my victim should remain alive and whole. I kissed it, making myself believe that it was that of my Ivor, and the "client" hurried me, saying:

"I am sure that you have seen more sexy cocks than mine. Hurry up and suck it, you slut."

I ignored the insult, and I began to work. I surrounded his penis with my lips and I lowered my head until it touched my throat. Then I went up and I got down again. I achieved a rhythm that he liked, because the man groaned and moved his hips to the tempo of my suck. Soon his voice increased in tone and his knees weakened, but he succeeded in thrusting all of his penis toward my throat. A mortal woman would have suffocated, but I flexed my neck and I received his first squirt directly in my stomach, and little by little, I squeezed with my lips and tongue in order to savour the leftovers, as his erection waned. I felt invigorated, and I recognised the flavour: the monk segregated the substance when I bit his organ, and a prodigious vigour filled my being. I left my supplier leaning against the wall and I jumped far from there. I even rose into the air until I arrived at the shelter that my coven occupied at this time. I breathed deep in order to calm myself, so nobody would notice the change that was operated in me. I felt a little guilty of my infidelity toward Ivor, and I was even aware of that he would suspect that I was up to some mischief, he would come to think that I drank human blood again. But if was I who convinced him to leave that...! In short, I avoided being seen by him that night, and the next, when the effect had disappeared. The only thing that one could notice was that I was somewhat rejuvenated.

Soon I was able to return to active service, like a soldier, displaying more strength and courage that the others. At first, they accepted it and they trusted me more, but Ivor was concerned that I could challenge his leadership in the clan. A small band of street criminals, armed with machine guns, drove by the disco to shoot at it, but my team anticipated this and blocked the shots with our own bodies, and the vampires in whose bodies the bullets didn't remain lodged pursued to the vehicle, leaving me in charge of the fallen. I sucked the bullets out or I extracted them with my fingernails and fangs, first, from my own body, and then, those of the comrades. Upon seeing that these recovered, I left them so that they would return by themselves and I went to help the ones ahead of me, but before, I looked for my "spinach" in a human "nerd" whom I made to ejaculate very quickly. I saw how my brethren fell, under the enemy fire, and the leader stabbed one of mine, disabling him. I faced the gunfire, which din not even tickle me. I routed my attackers as if they were rag dolls and I killed the ringleader with my own hands. When everything calmed down, my own body expelled the bullets, and I helped my friends to get up and flee. Ivor suspected something but he acknowledged that his life was in my hands, so he didn't condemn me. The incident was not investigated, since our human sponsors pulled strings with the authorities.

I fell in some kind of an addiction, even worse than drugs or alcohol for the humans or the human blood in my race. I worked as a prostitute, and when I served as a bodyguard, I had sex with my clients. The few times when I didn't drink their semen, I felt something interesting: on our skin or inside our cavities, the fluid became a balm that healed our wounds and returned us the stamina; so now I could move among the humans without them being able to notice something strange in me. It was difficult to refrain my impulse in combat, but I never allowed myself to hurt a human or a vampiric ally. I only unleashed my fury against clans that threatened the peace that my group established with the daywalkers.

A strange incident occurred to me with a young man who wanted to reciprocate the oral sex to me, and upon feeling my orgasm, I smeared his face with blood. He jumped disgusted, spitting and screaming:

"You dirty bitch! Why didn't you warn me that you were having your 'period?'"

Luckily for me, he mistook my gush with menstruation, which naturally contains blood. He didn't transform, since the elixir in our blood has already gone lean. When I think about it, I find it funny.

Shortly before dawn, Ivor interrogated me:

"What hast thou been doing when do thou stayeth alone?"

"I only observe, Sire. I try to anticipate dangers."

I lied and he replied:

"And why do you look so beautiful and radiant?"

"It is because of the love that I feel for you, my Lord."

And although I was somewhat stronger than he, he was able to hurt me. It no longer was a love game between vampires. It was in order to gather information directly from my blood.

"Thou hast been practising orgies behind my back! Didst thou believe that I would not realise this? I am familiarised with all the abominable rites of the ancients! I lived centuries before you were born! What is more: these practices have been around for millennia! You learned them from Gorath, my enemy!"

"Forgive me, my master, my beloved owner! I thought that I helped us survive better, besides, I don't hurt anybody, on the contrary, I please a lot!"

"Traitor, adulteress! Thou dost not love me, thou only gratifiest thyself! Right now, thou art expelled of the coven!"

The other brethren came to see what was the ruckus that Ivor raised. He explained to them:

"This infidel has placed the security of our brotherhood in jeopardy! What is more, she should die!"

"She should die, she should die, Kira should die!"

The brothers and sisters chanted, either out of blind loyalty to Ivor or cowardice. I was also unable to resist the sentence, and allowed to be taken. They undressed me and carried me high, grabbing me by my arms and legs as the Catholics carry a cross in their processions. They tied me to a roof, and they hid before the first rays touched them. The pain was much greater that what I imagined and soon the sun blinded me. I spent many hours, already without strength in order to scream, and no posture allowed me any respite. I suffered more than in the Inquisition and I hallucinated. I would not even get relief by fainting. At dusk, I no longer felt the burning sun, and although the pain was due to pass, I felt much discomfort. But I felt that somebody approached, and upon trying to plead with him, I realised that I had also lost my voice. That somebody untied me and he or she carried me like a baby, without a defined direction. He deposited me in some dark place so that I could recover, but he or she was very aware of that the darkness would not be enough in order to heal me completely. He gave me a little blood to drink, and he left me alone. I drank the whole bottle but I could not find any more and I became frustrated. My solitude and my vulnerability allowed bad memories to assail me, and I appreciated better the kind of curse that fell upon me. I felt my body and my face and I found out that I no longer had eyes in my sockets, and I cried hopelessly.