The Blood Painted Cage

The day had been warm and bright, something that always made my body sing with contentment. I loved the day. The sun always brought a smile to my face, the sky was always changing depending on its mood and the daylight world was always so beautiful. It was so full of life and constantly painted in vigorous colours. Even in the grips of dusk the world was just as lively as the day, just as wonderful and fascinating.

However as I was a vampire this would probably come across as odd, in fact it did. Although people do not voice it, it is thought of; very often. I was special though and a rarity among my kind. I was what was known as a Silver blood, a white haired vampire who was physically weak but had extraordinarily powerful mental abilities. And not only that but apparently I was the only member of the Sinclair family who was still alive which made me the ruler and dictator of the Clans.

Not that I took that job up. It was only recently that the Elder’s left me alone and stopped dogging me about it after they found me wondering about in the wilderness of Russia forty years ago. I did not like to make decisions for these people, these people I did not really consider myself a part of. I was raised as a human, ate like a human, thought like a human. To me, I was human. I did not need blood to survive unlike the others and I did not need to hide from the sun in fear of it burning me and just because I was swept away shortly after I realised I was not aging and told I was practically a queen did not mean I was going to step up on the mantle. It was wrong of me to do so. At least that’s what I thought. No one else seemed to agree with me.

Sighing lightly and letting my arms dangle by my sides from my laying position in my current climbing tree, I stared blearily up through the canopy at the gentle orange sky above. My sixty third birthday had been and gone. Yes. I was indeed sixty three although I appeared forty years younger. I felt young but old at the same time. It was a strange feeling and one I was going to have to get used to.

I sighed again. I was thinking too much again. I needed the children, the young ones that come visit me from the nearby clan. I played with them and cared for them while they could run about in the sun. A time that was very limited. Once they reached their late teens the sun would begin to eat at their flesh. But they distracted me while I watched over them, keeping the strange feeling of detachment I felt from the people who I was meant to be a part of.
My attention suddenly snapped and a smile spread over my face when I heard rushing footsteps and worried calls. I smoothly rolled over on the thick branch, being careful not to shake the tree, and watched through the blanket of leaves below me as a young man stopped just underneath, turning this and that as he called for me.

Seeing that he was focusing up the long grass covered hill, I lightly let myself fall behind him and landed silently. I lightly brushed down my flowing skirt before I toddled up behind him, leaned forward and then blew on his exposed neck. He cried out in surprise and whirled around, rubbing his neck with an uncomfortable look on his face. I smiled lightly in welcome to the young Viorel.

“There you are Eva.” He mumbled, scowling at me gently from behind his glasses.

I laced my fingers in front of me and nodded. “Why have you been calling for me?”

“Some mercenaries are here with Margot. She said she needs to speak with you.”

I frowned and sighed lightly. “She always needs to speak with me.” I mumbled, pouting slightly.

Viorel shrugged. “Apparently she really needs to see you.”

I continued to frown until an idea popped into my head. I stepped forward sharply and snatched up his hand, holding it gently in my small hands.

“I will go,” I announced which caused Viorel to raise his eyebrows then lower them in suspicion.

“What’s the cost?” He asked warily.

“Come with me down to the lake.” I replied happily, already turning to head back up the hill.
He sighed heavily and didn’t both to even try to stop me dragging him behind him, even though he was far stronger than me.

“We went there yesterday Eva.” He informed me.

I glanced back him, the smile still plastered on my face. “I know.”

I hummed lightly to myself as I made my way through the long grass that swayed with every breeze that darted over the world. I took my unresisting captive down the other side of the hill and towards the woods that lined the horizon. Once inside I let his hand go and half skipped, half ran through the numerous wide spaced ever greens. I stopped now and then, waiting for Viorel to catch up before I carried onwards towards the roaring sound of crashing water. I stopped suddenly when I reached the edge of the land and the thin river began. The water at first was calm and slow but as I walked west along side it, it gradually picked up its pace as it neared the miniature waterfall.

I lightly pranced onto the rocky edge where the water frothed before it fell off the side and I stood comfortably overlooking the writhing dark water below. I waited contentedly for a while as I waited for Viorel to come. Although I left him behind I knew he would soon appear. He knew exactly where I would be.

This was a special place for Viorel and myself. I took him in after finding him alone and terrified in his house not too far from here. His parents had been killed by a Grey blood vampire and he had returned to the bloody mess. In an attempt to comfort him after he refused to warm up to anyone in the house or even speak or eat, I always brought him here. It was quiet and calming, a place I felt would sooth him. It did after a while and he began to open up to me and to play in the water in an attempt to catch the fish. After a while, I decided to introduce to him what I could do. As a child, manipulating water into the air and changing its shape was something magical to him and not something to fear. As a result I often brought him out here and used my mind to create floating water for his entertainment, calming his fears and gradually gaining his trust. Since then he has been my loyal and rare friend.

My ears detected his approach and I did not bother to turn around and continued to look out over the waterfall with my hands behind my back. Only when I heard him scrabbling to my side did I turn to look down at him gently.

Heavily he sat down on the wet rock and leaned back on his hands, tilting his head to one side so he could watch me.

“Why do you insist coming here?” He asked.

I puffed my cheeks out in a feigned insult. “Because I like coming here with you. It settles my mind when I cannot stop thinking and do not have the children to distract me.”

“You can come out here on your own.” He mumbled, picking at the pine needles he had gathered on his shoulder.

I turned my eyes from him and looked out to the lake. “It is not the same if you are not here with me. You made this place special ever since you were a child. Without you here it is lacking the youth you brought.” I told him simply and gently.

I let my gaze slide back to him and saw him scratching his cheek while refusing to look at me, a strong indication that he was embarrassed.

“Well if you insist on it Eva I won’t complain.” He mumbled and then looked up at me sharply with an expression that told me he was trying to look firm. “But only for ten minutes. After that you must go see Margot. She will blow a gasket if you keep on ignoring her.”

I grinned and stretched my arms above my head languidly. “Once my mind has settled I will. I do not like feeling depressed, no matter how weak the feeling is.”

He nodded firmly and placed his cheek in his hand, a sign that he agreed to my reasoning. We did not speak while we looked out at the lake. There was no need. Viorel knew what was running through my head. I told him a few times when he was younger and he grew up knowing that when I was bothered but not saying anything it was the same thoughts that had been floating about my mind since I was told I was a vampire. There was no point speaking of it when nothing would change. These thoughts and feelings of not being a part of my supposed people were not going to fade from words. It was something I was going to have to deal with for myself and I would get there eventually. I just needed more time to observe the vampire race and understand them. That was all.

I felt Viorel move beside me, no doubt checking his watch after he sighed and stood unsteadily.

“It is time to go find Margot now Eva.” He announced.

“So it seems.” I said with a faint smile. “Lead the way Viorel.”

I hopped over the wet moss covered rocks, my small bare feet sticking to the surface like limpets and keeping me up right. I skipped lightly behind him as my usual depressing thoughts that plagued me now and then had stopped their offence and retreated to the back of my mind, leaving me in my content mood. Viorel hurried through the woodland and over the swaying hill although I did not mirror his urgency. He was forced now and then to hurry me as I dawdled behind him. Eventually he gave up and arrested my hand and dragged me the rest of the way.

Once we reached the borrow of the hill we stumbled past the stone archway that was joined instantly by a large gravel pathway that slithered past the maze like garden and fanned out at the back door of a square grey building. This was the Sinclair house, a building left empty for nearly two hundred years. Until I was found.

I watched at the face of the house loomed towards me with every forced step. Forty years I had lived here. Mostly alone apart from the three maids I had and Viorel. It was a quiet place and warm even if it was virtually empty. But the moment I stepped indoors I felt a strong presence, powerful and bare. I stopped the moment I entered my house, feeling about mentally at the strong aura then recoiled. It was blood stained and dangerous, a creature lusting for blood and filled with rage.

Furrowing my eyebrows in a rare firm expression, I swept off into the house to find Margot to demand what she had brought into my quiet and uneventful home.