Blood, Lust, And... Love?

"So Matt, how did you find her?" Keriann was asleep in my room in the left wing of the mansion and I sat at my desk in my study on the right wing of them mansion.

She's been asleep for a whole day from loss of blood. Which only goes to show that I had taken to much blood the other night. The taste of it still lingers on my tongue and I could feel her blood in my veins.

"I found her in an ally, a vampire going for her throat. I was about to intervene when she stabbed him with a dagger and he burst." He said, opening the curtains to let the moonlight stream in.

"Really, that's odd." I mumbled, focused on other, more interesting things... such as Keriann in my bed, in nothing but a small silk night gown. I could hear her steady heartbeat from here and I could smell the blood pumping from her heart.

"Yeah, the dagger looked similar to a picture in one of your books." He opened another set of curtains then turned towards the bookshelf behind me. It's the bookshelf where I keep my most important documents... and this got my attention.

My eyes followed him as he searched the shelf then finally found what he was looking for. He grabbed the book and plopped it in front of me. The book was written in Latin, so Matt had no idea why I tensed just by reading the title.

"What's it say?" He asked, leaning in.

"The Story of the First and the Mortal Priestess." I mumbled. Matt knew what the First was but he didn't know much about the Mortal Priestess. All he knew about her was that she was important to the Vampire Clan.

"The Mortal Priestess..." I held up a hand for him to stop. I could hear Keriann's heartbeat quickening in fear. When I stood up, Matt looked at me, confused, but when Keriann screamed and then a loud thump, we both ran.

Within a second I busted through my bedroom door, knocking off the hinges and I spotted Keriann on the floor next to the bed. She was still dazed and was clawing at her lower stomach.

"Keriann! Are you alright?!" I crouched down next to her and grabbed her hands.

"Get it out of me." She kept muttering over and over again.

"There's nothing in you." I told her, but she was listening to me.

"Is she alright?" Matt came bursting into the room, only glancing at the door for a second before rushing over to us, panting.

"She had a nightmare and hasn't woken up entirely yet." I told him. He just stared at her a moment longer before leaving to go grab something.

"Get it out of me." Keriann muttered again.

"Stop it!" I yelled at her. She shut up but stared at me. "Stop it." I said more calmly.

Tears fell down her cheeks as she wrapped her arms around me. Her sobs echoed throughout the room. I didn't know what to do so I wrapped my arms around her and mumbled reassurances in her ear.

Matt walked in on us like that. I looked over at him and noticed that he had a tool box... probably to fix the door. He raised a brow and I gave him a weak smile. I might be used to woman all over me but not like this. Matt snickered as he pointed to the bed. I glared at him the picked up Keriann and held her close to me.

"I'm bringing her into the study. Bring a blanket will you." Was all I said before I ended up back in my study. I laid Keriann down on the couch and waited for Matt to trot in with the blanket.

A minute later, he did. He covered Keriann with the blanket then we both took a seat at the desk.

"So tell me the story now." He stated bluntly. I sighed then, not even open the book, I began.

"The First is the reason why there are vampires in the first place. He was once human though, unlike most vampires. How he became the First is simply that he made a pact with a demon. He wanted immortality, the demon gave it to him... but at a price."

"What price?" Keriann was sitting up on the coach, fully awake and staring at me critically.

"Keri! You're all better now." Matt smiled warmly at her.

"Yeah, just a really vivid nightmare. Anyways, enough about me, continue the story."

I nodded. "The price was his blood. The demon drained him of his blood and forced him to drink it's blood. But, because his heart no longer pumped blood, the First had a thirst to drink blood. With-out blood, he couldn't live."

"The blood is the life." Keriann muttered. i stared at her, amazed that she knew that.

"Exactly. Anyways, the story goes that the reason he wanted immortality was because he wished to live forever with his love, an angel. The angel knew what the first had become and she still stayed with him. She was banned from heaven and her wings were ripped off. She stood by him, even when the thirst controlled him and he slaughtered sometimes a whole town, turning many of them. The First was the only one who could turn humans into vampires, because his blood was the demon's.
"After years of learning how to control the thirst, he still slaughtered many people. Although he could control it, he enjoyed killing, and he was addicted to the taste of blood. He even began to ignore the angel. Sh didn't like it so she tried to stop it. But he hurt her, attacked her, and almost killed her. With the last of her power and her life, she created a dagger of her blood. The dagger has the power to awaken anyone's hidden-self. And it is he only weapon that can kill immortals. The Angel used this dagger to kill the First and doing so, she died."

"Their was nothing about the Mortal Priestess in that story." Matt interrupted, slumping in his chair and staring at me with wide eyes.

"That's because I didn't finish. Now, the Mortal Priestess is a mortal human that is the reincarnation of the angel. Angels never really die, but because the angel was banned from heaven, she's reincarnated. But, there is something about the mortal that's chosen as her reincarnation..."

"You forgot to mention the human child." Keriann interrupted.

"What human child?" Both Matt and I asked at the same time.

She sighed. "The human child the angel gave birth birth to. For years the angel supported the First while he slaughtered humans and created his own army of vampires, but only because her protected her children from them. She gave him several vampyre. She was the first priestess but she wasn't mortal. The real reason she tried to stop him, is because of the last child she had, which was human. The First believed it wasn't his so he let the others abuse it. The angel tried to reason with him but instead, he attacked her. She ran and hid the human child, then when he found her, she created the dagger from her blood, power, and the rest of her life, and killed him. Then she died herself. Now she is only reincarnated into her bloodline." Keriann tried to stand but instead she fell back to the couch. I could feel something pouring out of her, something changing within her.

"How do you know so much? The Vampyre Council said nothing about this." I stood and stared at her as she looked up at me. The color of her eyes were turning to a bright red.... the color a vampire's eyes turn when their thirst takes over.

"The same way you know so much about vampires." Her voice was different, it was more melodic, and full of power that wasn't there earlier. By the look on Matt's face, he didn't notice the change. "Do you know, that the angel's blood lives inside everyone of her descendants. And that only those that are strong enough to hold both her soul and their own are chosen as the Mortal Priestess?" Now a faint blue light misted around her, invisible to the human eye.

"Keriann? Do you mean..." I wasn't stupid. I could put two and two together. And it all added up now... the reason she knew so much about the angel and the Mortal Priestess, and with everything that happened...... why she knows about vampires... this power coming off of her and stopping me where I stand.... I knew the answer, I just didn't want to believe it.

"I know you've figured it out." Now her voice sounded nothing like her and Matt could tell. And the mist glowed brighter now, enough for Matt to notice and he took a step back. "But are you going to help us, or give us over to them. Even though you know every word I say is true."

When Keriann say "us" I knew it wasn't her. It confirmed what I wished wasn't so. And that's what jolted me out of the trance I was in.

"Matt, close the curtains and go lock all the doors. Turn the alarms on and the traps. No-one comes in, or out unless I say so." I finally found my voice and Matt rushed out of the room. The power pouring off of Keriann was drawing out my own and made each word I said vibrated with power.

"I hope you don't change your mind Cáel. Everything is not as it seems." The power coming off of Keriann Intensified to the point were I needed to grab the table to hold me up. But just as fast as it intensified, it disappeared and Keriann, who had been standing a second ago, collapsed. I rushed over to her, and cradled her in my arms, and that's when I noticed that her heartbeat was weak, and fading.... fast.

Some instinct took over me and I slit my wrist and brought it to her mouth. I watched as her body reacted and my blood slid down her throat. The color returned to her skin and her heartbeat grew steadier. I pulled my hand away, I licked the wound and when I looked back at her, she was looking up at me in bewilderment. Her eyes had returned back to their original, which I just now noticed was a dark amethyst.

And then, for the first time since I've known her, she smiled and it nearly blew me away.

"Everything alright now?" Matt asked, coming into the room and looking at us. "Looks like it is. Anyways, someone want to explain what just happened and why I locked us into this huge mansion?"

"So you guys know?" Keriann croaked.

"Know what?" Matt asked, closing the curtains against the far right wall. While Matt had his back turned, I nodded to Keriann, and on impulse, leaned in and kissed her forehead. " I knew it, I'm going to be changing your sheets again Rayn."

Without breaking eye contact with Keriann, I spoke with out meaning to. "It's not like that Matt. Keriann is different.... I can't do those things with her. I have to protect her." Because somehow, I had become her Cáel, her warrior, her protector. And she was my Mortal Priestess.