Once Awakened: Chapter 11

Her blood was strong, almost like that of a vampire. Her thoughts were vivid and beautiful, not simple and plain like that of most mortals. I heard a voice speaking to me, not hers and not mine. I don’t who it belonged to but I knew what it was. It was the Vampire Language and I knew what the words meant.1

“Dist ningrae dus kreis vulkan ist Narcissa.” 2

The name of her soul is Narcissa. Her true name was the name I had given her. In all the history of the immortals this has never happened, until now. For a moment I doubted what I heard but I didn’t get to worry about it for very long.3

When her heart began to slow I pulled away from her neck. I looked at her eyes only to find that she was looking back at me. 4

“Thank you.” she gasped, she was struggling to breathe. I had to hurry now or she would die.5

I pulled out the knife I had brought with me and slit the vein in my neck. When the blood has risen to the surface of my skin I wrapped my arms around her and lifted her to drink from me. 6

I remembered what Romulus had said the first time I drank directly from him, and it was true. It was a wonderful feeling, the pull of another. And it was different from any of the times Romulus had drank from me. When he drank from me he was gentle, he only drank enough so that I sank into the pleasure of it. Narcissa, on the other hand, held me so tightly and drew my blood with such force it was almost as if her intent was to destroy me. 7

I could see the changes already starting on her. Her skin was fading and quickly became as white as mine, the now shining strands on her hair instantly untangled themselves and lay smooth and perfect as they would for eternity, I could feel her fangs forming and digging into my neck. But more changes then that were visible, her fingernails grew slightly and formed into tiny but razor sharp points, her skin grew cold, every part of her literally perfected it’s self. 8

“Narcissa, stop, please Narcissa. Stop!” With all the strength I had left pulled away from her. I looked back at my daughter and saw her face twisted with pain. So her death had already begun. I took her hand and held it tightly.9

Suddenly she screamed in pain. Her scream broke my heart. I lifted her up and held her close to me. I had blood tears running down my face and they fell on her bare shoulder. 10

“Narcissa,” I asked her, “Can you hear me?”11

She didn’t answer me so I assumed she was unable to. But though she couldn’t hear me she still called to me. And her cries awoke such sadness in me that I felt as though I were dying beside her. But suddenly I did not regret what I had done, and I knew as I watched her that I no longer had any trace of the remorse of mortality left in me. 12

She wrapped her arms around me tightly and as her pain increased her grip grew tighter. Her nails broke my skin but it healed over immediately afterward. I saw her bite her lips to hold her cries but, just as I had, she failed. 13

Her pain suddenly stopped and I knew her death was finally over, but unlike me she did not call out telepathically. She did not question what was happening. She lay still silent with her hand completely limp in mine.14

For an hour she lay like in that state, I counted every second. She never tested her senses as she got them back, she never tried to communicate with me in any way. She lay as though she would never awake and my eyes never left her face.15

After what seemed like a thousand years, her green eyes suddenly flew open and they glowed so brightly I was sure I could see green light coming from them.16

She sat up easily and gracefully as though nothing had ever happened to change her very existence. She lifted her hands and looked approvingly at the new length and sharpness of her nails. But that was the only thing she examined so closely with her glittering eyes. And, before I could stop her, she stood up and promptly vanished only to reappear immediately on the other side of the room. She did this twice more before she stopped, looking extremely pleased with herself.17

It was almost as if my daughter was a different person, and in a way she was. But I had never seen her this happy before. I had expected her to question me about her powers, not test them herself. Though from all the reading she had done I could correctly assume she knew her limits.18

“Narcissa” I said and she stopped immediately and turned to face me.19

“This is amazing, Mother, I never knew it felt so wonderful to move like this!” She said joyfully and she laughed slightly. When she laughed I noticed something, it was not the cold cruel laugh she had always had, it was the laugh of a child, a laugh that would have brought a smile to my own face had I not been so caught up in the other thing I noticed in her sentence.20

Mother, she called me Mother. She never called me that. It was always Marie or once in a great while she would call me Sithandra. But not Mother, never Mother. In my surprise at what she called me I forgot what it was that I was going to say and merely said the first thing that came to my mind.21

“You-you just called me Mother.” I hadn’t meant to stammer but I was so just so surprised.22

Her face changed suddenly, it was no longer joyful and kind as it had been but suddenly looked fierce and powerful, the Narcissa I knew and feared. Her eyes flashed red for a fraction of a second but I blinked and they were green again. 23

“I meant to say Marie, I’m sorry.” She said, dismissing the word as though it had been nothing. But to me it had not been that simple; she had called me her mother in my tongue. It was no small thing to me.24

“No, don’t be. I don’t mind. I like it, actually.” I hoped she would call me Mother more often but apparently she had other things in her mind, a mind that, try as I might, I could neither read nor see.25

“It doesn’t feel right somehow, it slipped. I’ve never called anyone mother except the woman who gave birth to me. You are my mother in this blood but I think Marie is a better word, it means the same thing after all.”26

I tried to hide my disappointment at her words but I couldn’t tell if I succeeded or not for her face betrayed no emotions except her joy at being turned.27

“Narcissa, you’re forgetting something.” I said, and I went over to a small shelf built into the wall where, when she had not seen, I had set a small, raven colored box. It was to this shelf I went and this box I retrieved. I passed it to her and I could tell by her gaze she knew what it contained, her amulet.28

She opened the small box and gazed at it with amazement in her eyes. Indeed, I had done well when I made it. It was silver with four diamond shaped points and a circle in the middle. On each of the diamond points I had set an emerald that matched her eyes. Overkill perhaps, but I couldn’t help myself. She was my daughter and I wanted to make a amulet that would match her in beauty.29

She looked at me expectantly and held out her hand to me with her amulet lying flat out on her palm.30

“Your knife,” She said looked toward it, “My soul must be protected after all.”31

I took her hand and, with my knife in my other hand, slit straight across her palm. Her blood, now a much darker shade, pooled on her palm and coated the amulet in a sparkling crimson color before it faded and the silver shone through. 32

She unhooked the tiny clasp and put it around her neck, closing it again with her mind. And, once again, she vanished and reappeared on the other side of the room. Only this time when she reappeared she wasn’t looking at me she was staring at a section of the painting that circled the room. I looked at it and shivered though I wasn’t cold. It was of two mortals, and one of them had a sword straight through his chest the other stood over him, his face reflecting his pride in the kill. 33

Narcissa stared at it and laughed slightly before turning to the torch on the wall beside her. She stepped toward it and lifted her hand up to the flame. I was about to stop her, I knew she had seen me work with flames before, but I also she, as a newborn vampire, would not be able to do it without burning herself. Well, I thought I knew.34

She slowly passed her hand directly through the flame and it flickered at her touch but neither went out nor burned her. I was frozen in surprise, my daughter, a newborn vampire, was controlling fire. It was impossible yet my eyes could not deny what I was seeing35

She removed her hand from the flame and threw an amused glance at the painting before turning to me.36

“Mortals and their wars” She laughed before turning towards the door and vanishing.