Lucius - Thousand Year Old Vampire - Part 1

1.1 By any measure known to Gods or men I know that I died. Still, when I came to again it felt like I was dying. My neck ached. Something that should have been blood leaked from that wound to the left below my rib cage. The color of the substance was a few shades too dark. Touching it, was even worse, rubbing it between my fingers it felt closer to olive oil than blood.

Up until that point I hadn’t much considered the smell of blood, so I couldn’t tell if that in some way also differed from any expectations. What I knew though was that the scent I felt wasn’t expected. There was something about my own blood that felt mesmerizing. Curled up in the dark I kept picking at my wound and smelling my fingers.

Soon I had it all over my face. Sweat and blood matted my hair. In a haze I remembered yearning for a smile after playing a tune, it all felt so distant. Now this, this was intoxicating.

I found nails that I couldn’t remove from the wound. They couldn’t have been mine as I didn’t have any broken ones, but I couldn’t explain where they came from. Some part of me screamed that this was wrong. I shouldn’t be able to dig around in my wound and squeeze at it to leech more blood without feeling any kind of pain.

At the time it didn’t matter much to me. The scent of the liquid was enough. I managed to inhale a small pool of it and lay down on the floor, tilting my head back so that it wouldn’t spill out again. The sweetness, and at the same time foulness, was overwhelming.

On my life, or un-life, I wouldn’t be able to tell how long I stayed in this state. Constantly I picked at my wound to harvest more blood. I might have been there for days, time escaped me. With desperation I realized that the scent wasn’t as sweat anymore, but I needed more. The craving was unlike anything else.

I heard a growling and looked up to the figure approaching. Sahylina didn’t look pleased. I felt a growl beginning in my own throat but instead a whimper came out. She told me that I behaved like an addict covered in my own filth.

Then she sat me up and wiped me clean with a cloth. I resented her for removing the last of that scent from me. Sahylina dressed me in some clothes that I’d never seen before. Only then I realized that I didn’t know where I was. It appeared that Sahylina was staying with, someone.. and that I was wearing his clothes.

She started talking about blood and the need to feed. Even though I’d spent, I don’t know how long, inhaling my own blood, I was sure she was mad. It repulsed me when she said that she was fetching someone that I could feed on. As soon as she left I ran out into the streets.

My plan was to find my brother Quintus and explain that I was in some sort of trouble. On my way there I was trying to figure out what to say. I didn’t come up with anything, instead I reasoned that Quintus would do most of the talking anyway. That’s typically how it goes.

Quintus wasn’t at home, but I found his wife Fabia out back. She instantly gave me a smile and asked where on earth that I had been. I have wondered if that smile of hers was the trigger, if things had been different had she scowled, or was it inevitable from the start? Regardless, the smile unlocked something in me.

I had desired this woman long ago. Looking at her now I felt I desired her still. Only the desire wasn’t of the same kind as before.

It happened in a blur, the smile never even left her face before she was dead. I didn’t just smell and inhale her blood, I drank in a deep and greedy way. Self-loathing came in waves, I would hate myself for what I did, but I was to weak to resist. If food could produce music this is what it would be, this was the nectar of the Gods.