Birth of the Dragon

Roseanne, the Toreador representative, stood before me. “Lady Felicia, he will begin to worry soon. You need to go back within the week.” She sat down at her desk, and began to write. I didn’t want to go back, but I had no choice; if he got worried, he’d search for me. If he found me here, then everything would be ruined.

“Yes, Lady Roseanne. I will return to him soon, but a day or more after the full moon. I promised one of the lycans something,” I replied in a calm tone.

“Very well. While you are here, come and help me give the sleeping pills to the lycans; we have been able to gather stronger ones. The other ones will be wearing off shortly,” Roseanne ordered.

“Yes, Lady Roseanne, I will do as you ask.” Roseanne handed over a bottle of pills. On it was written ‘One’ in elegant handwriting. That simply meant to give one each to the werewolves and lycans. We both began to walk down to the lower dungeons. I walked into one cell while she walked into the one opposite mine. Everyone here was given fresh food and water, so they didn’t need any at this moment. We only just began to tie them up now, since it was so close to the full moon. Once everyone was fed a pill, I walked into the next and repeated the process. I continued this until I reached Sam’s cell. He was the only one in this one. I offered him the pill. “Good afternoon, Sam.”

I noticed that Sam had already put himself in his chains and was waiting patiently for sedative, "Hello Felicia."

“Is it hurting much?” I asked to be polite.

Sam nodded and stretched slowly, "It's not too bad yet."

“Well, do you feel like talking?” I inquired, feeling like I could trust him. Mostly everyone knew, anyway, so why not him?

The lycan nodded and gave me a small smile, "I'd like that."

“Alright, well, when I told you about my past, from when I woke up, I wasn’t telling everything. I left out a fair amount of important details,” I admitted.

Sam gestured towards the bed with his head, "Go ahead, spill."

I sat on the edge of the bed, and prepared myself to tell my story. “After I woke up, the note from Lucien was in a case. On the case was an address; I assumed Lucien had written it so the courier knew where to take it. Hoping it was my home, I tried to follow the map that was also drawn onto it. So, I arrived at the town that had been marked, to find it burning to the ground…” I paused, pained by old memories.

The boy looked like he wanted to comfort me, "You don't have to tell me any more if it hurts too much."

“I am fine… My first thought was that it had been bandits. They were still there, it seemed, for one went to chase after me. I… I ran back into the forest, but he was faster than I. He chased me to a group of trees that were too thick to run through, and there were large bushes either side of me; they were spikey. The man… He held a sword up, the blade nearly touched my nose. Then he…” I had to pause again and think through it. Not only were the memories painful to conjure, but it was hundreds of years ago.

"You killed him?" He shrugged as he spoke. I shook my head.

“Something did, but not I. There was a blur of motion, and suddenly, the bandit was gone. A vampire stood in his place. He took my hand and comforted me. I think he knew that I was a vampire, for he introduced himself… As Lucien.” I waited to see if Sam was going to reply, or if I should just continue.

Sam seemed to take in the information, "So your boyfriend turned you or had he just been turned himself?"

“He told me that there had been a disease that was spreading quickly. He feared for my safety, and turned me, but as far as I know, the plague died out a few towns away from mine. He took me back to his coven, and was very kind to me… At first. Then he turned into a man typical of this time, only worse. He attempted to control everything I did, he even eventually stopped me from talking with other female coven members. A hundred or so years later, I met Miriam. She convinced me to join her coven, the arch rival to Lucien’s. She also managed to convince me to be a spy. For most of my undead life, I have been delivering crucial information to her and the other leaders here.”

Sam smiled comfortingly, "You did the right thing; the strong, intelligent and overall correct thing to do. The guy was a jerk who probably killed all your family and the fed you a bunch of lies."

“He basically did; he hired the bandits,” I replied, trying to remain calm and dignified.

He smiled, "Come give me a hug, you obviously need it."

“Oh, um… I would… Rather not; you are still chained to the wall, and…”

The lycan smiled, "I'm okay, I won't force-shift until tomorrow and right now you look like you need some comfort."

“… Alright.” I unshackled Sam and let him hug me.

He didn't try to force me to do anything but instead just gripped me around the shoulders, he stepped out of it, "Come on help me shackled myself back up." I helped him be restrained back onto the wall.

“I am leaving in a few days, but we will have time to speak with Edmund,” I informed Sam, feeling that he had the right to know.

He nodded as he began putting a chain around his neck, "I'll be able to in two days so just wait till then? Plus I'm going to need the sedatives."

I nodded, and locked up all the chains with my key. I gave Sam the pill and waited to see if he wanted anything. He seemed to go strange. He threw himself forward and ended up kissing me. I took a step back, my eyes widening. He threw himself backward and I saw that his pupil had dilated so much that all the colour was gone. “Sam?” I was worried for him, but there was nothing that could ease his pain if it was from the force turn. I saw that he wasn't shifting, and realised that it was probably just his body reacting negatively to the sedatives. I saw that his jaw had locked together so he wouldn't be able to speak. I decided to stay with him though. I waited for him to eventually calm down, saying things that I thought would calm him.

Sam eventually calmed down a little enough to speak, "Woah... I'm seeing... things."

“What kind of things?” I asked, curious.

The werewolf laughed with hysteria, "Chickens, zebras, leprechauns, sharks... and you."

Roseanne stepped into view. “Lady Felicia, you have been too distracted; you still have so many cells to go. Go and give out the pills,” she ordered sternly. I nodded.

“I am so sorry, Sam,” I apologized as I left the room. I handed out the rest of the pills to everyone else. Once I was finished with that, I had to go and hunt. It was night now, and I was thirsty. Before I left, I changed into the indecent, odd, modern clothing. I refused to wear men clothes. I didn’t understand why women these days wore them; pants were for men, and skirts were for ladies. I settled for a knee-length dress and some heels.

I arrived at the petite town quickly. The first thing I looked for was a farmer or someone who walked along the empty streets by themselves. With no such luck, I wandered over to a pub. The scent of alcohol and intoxicated men was thick. A reasonably handsome man staggered over to me. “H-hey, lady. You wanna… Come back to my pwace?” he asked drunkenly. I nodded, and so he took me by the hand and led me to his empty house.

The man turned to face me, and he suddenly had his arms wrapped around my waist. He pulled me tightly against him and began to try and kiss me. Wanting to end this awkward attack quickly, I plunged my fangs into the soft skin of his neck. I retracted them, and began to drink blood from the wound. I was carried away, and accidently drank all the blood from inside him. I dragged him out to the lake as quickly as I could. There, I threw him down a deep hole a few vampires had already dug. He joined the many other corpses of our prey. I then returned to the coven.