Once Awakened: Chapter One

The years of my mortality had passed away quickly. Time always passes quickly when you’re mortal. Mortals take life and its joys for granted. They take time for granted. They are always telling themselves it can be done later or perhaps some other time. But for mortals, later can vanish as quickly as the flickering flame of a candle in a storm. It’s when you’re immortal that the years can change. They can seem to stop permanently or they can fly by faster then even we can see.
The time that I was with Romulus seemed to be those years that flew away from me before I could catch them.
Though I don’t live with him anymore, I still love him more then can be said with words. Romulus saved me many times, he raised me from a mortal child, he killed me with his own hand and then brought me back to him with his own blood. He gave me everything I could ever want, but all I truly wanted was him, and he gladly gave me that too. He was my lover and my brother, my mentor and my friend. He was not my father though, he was far more then that and I loved him far more then that, if that is even possible. But then again, we vampires often do the impossible.
He called me many things. But the name that he called me that he never called another was my favorite by far. Santante. It’s a combination of words from our language. A language I shall not speak here. But it a more common tongue, the words are Blood and song. I’ve always loved the name as I’ve loved anything from Romulus.
From Romulus I learned to speak with my mind, to move things with my mind, and to see and read others with my mind. I can control any mortal with only my voice. Thanks to his training heat, death, time, and now even gravity are as meaningless to me as they are meaningful to mortals. God, I love him.
Not only did I love him but he took care of me, if I could not hunt Romulus fed me himself with the blood from his own veins. His blood was so strong it was the equal of five mortals. And I usually have to kill about two or three whenever I hunt.
He raised me as mortal starting when I was only three years old. My parents had died, Romulus had not killed them, and he never could have. They were sick. He came to me in the darkness that always follows death and brought me to him. I remember that night. He changed my life forever that night. He gave me a life.
I had been sitting alone in a small corner. An old piece of cloth and my torn brown dress were all I had for warmth when he had come. And I was dying, dying of the same painful disease which had stolen away the lives of my parents. Romulus had knocked softly on the door of the house we were in, if you could call it that, and when no one had answered he had come in anyway and seen me curled in the corner. I had been crying for death or for some other release from the suffering. When he came inside, he seemed to know right where I was and, though I was hidden and I stayed silent when he knocked, he came directly toward me. Looking at Romulus then, I had been terrified of him.
But though Romulus had something about him that had scared me there was something that comforted me as well. Perhaps it was the power he had, or perhaps the strength, that seemed to show around him.
“Don’t fear me, Sarah” Romulus had said to me, crouching down so I could see him better, “I want to help you, come to me.” I was still frightened but had stood and slowly walked to him. Had I been in a more coherent state I would not have trusted him so easily, though there was no reason not to. But I did, and as I stepped into his arms he took my small hand in his and embraced me and he told me I was safe now.
“Don’t be afraid, nothing will hurt you.” He had whispered to me “I will protect you now. You have called to me. I heard you and I have answered. Come with me. I will feed you and I will heal your pain.” I nodded and he continued “My name is Romulus. But you may call me whatever you wish.”
“My Lord” I said to him in the best voice I could make, though it was barely more then a whisper. I had been dying from the same illness that killed my parents.
He had lifted me up and carried me to the horse he had ridden, a large black horse, beautiful and strong. I had never seen one before and it had frightened me, even more so then he had.
“He won’t hurt you,” Romulus said to me when I tried to hide my face in his cloak “His name is Thorn. He’s very kind.” Romulus put me on her and got on after me.
“Close your eyes” He whispered to me, and I was so exhausted and so relieved to be safe that my eyes fell closed immediately. I could feel him holding me tightly to him with one hand and I knew he held Thorn’s reins with the other. But that was all I knew and I easily fell into a deep sleep of the type that I had not experienced in a long time.
I awoke when he got me to his castle. And he laid me on his bed then gave me some of his blood but he did not change me. He did not even tell me what he gave me he just kissed me and told me to drink. My body healed quickly but I was far too young to put the connection between the kiss and my healing together.
And though I had healed quickly, I was still very sick for a week. I stayed in his bed and he stayed by my side when he could. He left during the day. Many times I awoke for a few moments and sometimes he would be beside me holding my hands or running his own hands through my long black hair as he has always loved to do.
But as he could not be near me with the sun in the sky due to the windows he settled with leaving a small white candle, this terrified me the first time he did it. I had forced myself to stay awake until he returned but I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion hit me and my eyes closed then, it might have been a few seconds or a few days, but when I opened my eyes he was beside me once again.
“My Lord?” I whispered, “Where did you go?” My voice came out as a broken whisper that I was amazed he could hear, but of course he did hear it.
“I cannot stay with you during the day, Santante. I knew you would wake at some point so I left the candle so you would not be in darkness.” As he said it he kissed the top of my head gently, my thin hair not completely masking the chill of his lips.
With that answer my energy left me again and my eyes fell closed. I thought I faintly felt his fingers gently curl themselves around mine, but if he did it was so gentle I can’t really know.