Fan Fiction ❯ Aranea ❯ One ( Prologue )

' ... ' thinking

" ... " speaking

 

i hope you like...read away...

 

Prologue

Night crept in slowly, foreshadowing the danger that was to come.

 

I sat hidden in the cellar of the cottage that was the only home I had ever known, barely seventeen years of age.

 

They crept in, feared teeth glinting the small light of a frogotten and burning candle, following the scent of the fear in their prey's blood. They were overdue for food. They neglected the need to feed, hoping to overcome the power it held on them. No longer would their stomach's ache for food, throats turn dry without its warm and thick presense, their teeth throb for the feel of flesh to break so easily. They had come across prey, food, and they were not ones able to pass it up.

 

I sat down in the corner of the cellar, hidden in the shadow of a wine racket my father owned. My father had sensed their presense nearing, alarmed greatly when the horses began to whine with agitation and worry and the cows sounded their fear loudly. I could hear when my father took the gun off its hooks on the wall on the other side of the room. The sound of his footsteps, cautious and careful, on the wooden staircase. My brother had left to go to town for supplies to get through the winter. He was to have returned hours ago but had not shown up. I feared the worst.

 

A shot interrupted me of my thoughts. 'Father's gun,' I thought. A woman's scream of fear and pain echoed on my ears, dread weighing heavily in my heart. 'Mother...' I whispered in my head. Tears slipped from my hold on them and a loud thud above did nothing to help, only made the tears increase.

 

Shouting began above my head, many voices I did not recognize nearly drowned out my mother and father's.

 

"Shut up, human filth!" The voice seemed familiar to me. 'Someone from town,' I thought vaugely.

"You won't feel pain for long."

 

The lack of struggle sounds seemed to worry me even more. A moment later, my father's pain filled cry made me gasp and told me that my parents were out-matched.

 

My mother's denying cries, muffled by the floorboard between us, told me bits and pieces of what was happening. "...bit him....bastards...devil spawns........vampyres....."

 

'Vampyres? Here?' I looked up above my head, at the ceiling. I saw the sudden, slight, shift of weight on the floorboards and listened to my mother cry out in surprise, then agony. She fell to the floor above my head. Blood slipped through the cracks between the wooden boards, dropping silently and thickly on the stone floor.

 

Ignoring the sounds around me, I stared at the blood of my parents. At first, it came moderately fast drops, then slowed, as the hearts within their bodies gave up and succumbed to eternal slumber. I shook my head. I didn't want to believe my eyes or ears.

 

Suddenly, I was grabbed by the neck and pulled up off my feet, back pressed against the cold wall. My eyes met cold blue ones, dark as the night sky. I could not tell the exact color of his hair, but it was either black or dark brown. The very small candle that had been lit by him told me so.

 

"Well, it seems we have a little girl hiding from us." Another one I hadn't seen, behind the one grasping my neck tightly, laughed lightly.

 

"Save that one. We need more of our kind." Another I hadn't seen spoke. My mind was whirling, I was afraid of death and afraid to keep living. The one holding my neck hard, that was strangling me as time went by ever so slowly, seemed to agree.

 

When he lifted me up higher, so we were at eye level, he leaned his head forward, his mouth opening to a fanged snarl. I sucked in the best breath I could out of fear. His teeth grazed my neck for what seemed long and painful moments then I felt them pierce my neck easily. It didn't feel as painful as I had thought it would. 'It must be the drinking that hurts,' I concluded when he left my neck almost un-caringly.

 

After that, I must have passed out because I do not know how I ended up where I was later. It wasn't anywhere near my cottage where I had lived before. Alexander, the one who had sired me, stood alone on a bloodied plain. Yellow, wintering grass had turned to a deep, near black red. The crimson blood of his two allies and dearest friends.

 

I was all he had left then. That and memories that were fading away with each day. He taught me everything he knew, passing down his traits, hoping to 'raise' a powerful vampyre, one that would rise high in status and show the world what a true vampyre should be. Powerful, but not power seeking, and wise.

 

I found out that being what I now was wasn't as easy as it seemed when I was human still. The crave for food was stronger, but happened less. I could go on for a week without food, then one moment, I would double over in hunger. I now understood the pain that occured if I didn't feed regularly.

 

Alex, who was now the one I loved, told me to try and go longer without it each time, and bear the pain when hunger demanded what it wanted.

 

I learned, later on, of a way to sleep eternally and lay to rest all others. Other vampyres. To kill the prince. And of a gathering held to find a queen to be by his side that occured every 500 years. He did not allow my presence to two that were held while he was still living. He went to rest half a century before the gathering in my 700th year as a vampyre. I will never forgive him. I loved him. But he did not love me back fully.

 

~Chapter One~

 

Katharine, the soul survivor of the attack, stood five foot, six, appearing to be seventeen years of age to the normal, untrained, human eye. With short, blonde hair, almost shoulder length with streaks of natural light brown in some places. 700 years after that fateful day, she still looked the same. Just wiser and more solemn. 'Kill the prince of all their kind and sleep eternally with the ones she loved and lost' It was easier said than done. Every five hundred years, he held a gathering for all to find a woman to rule by his side as his queen. Each time, though, none caught his interest. While he caught their eyes, he felt no mutual feelings in return.

 

After each gathering, the prince disappeared without a trace and no one knew of his whereabouts. None except his two right-hand men who had been standing by his side since he was born first as a human. They were just as powerful as the prince was and knew him quite well, better than anyone besides the prince himself.

 

She missed the first that occured while she was a vampyre. Her sire had not allowed her presence, scolding to her that she was too in-experienced to even find where the gathering was held. Now, the time had time had come once again and Alexander was not there to stop her this time around. He was dead, laid to rest by his beloved Sarah's grave, slept to the dawn of the next day.

 

Katharine used her sire as an excuse to kill the prince. She would not become weak and give up on her vow. She was not afraid to let the prince kill her. Either way, she would fine the peace she seeked.

 

Katharine walked down the cobblestone path through a town she had traveled to from her home town. It took her many weeks to find where the gathering was to be held. It was in a small town of Saint Petersburg in Russia, next to the Gulf of Finland. It was quaint and wasn't too populated. Katharine liked it and she decided it was quite a nice place to be. (1)

 

The only thing was it was almost always dark, since it was winter in all of Russia at the time. Most vampyres 'migrated' up to the north, mostly Russia because of it's history for tourists.

 

Katharine was dressed to blend in with the ones at the gathering. She wore a burgundy velvet dress, a black bodice to compliment her curves and her hair wound tightly behind her head. A black choker surrounded her neck. Others of her kind stared at her as she walked down the cobblestone path, wondering why she was dressed for a glorious occasion they knew nothing about. Most had been there for little over awhile and knew if an event was passing but they were none. None publicly advertized, anyway.

 

'Isaakievskaya Ploschad 1.' she repeated in her mind. Katharine looked up at the gate in front of her. 'Damn. Pure gold. And I didn't believe it true. How'd the prince score a place like this to hold his gathering?' Katharine looked at her surroundings, leaning down inconspicuously, as if to tighten her shoes. 'Coast clear,' she thought, lifting the hem of her dress up and pulling a dagger out of a case sewed to her leggings. She unlocked the gate that only special guests had a key too. If you couldn't unlock the gate yourself, you weren't worthy of the prince. Simple as that.

Slipping the daggar back into its place, she entered the Cathedral grounds. St. Isaac. Largest Cathedral in all of Russia. What a beauty it was. She wondered where the other gatherings had been held and if they compared to... this... Katharine couldn't imagine any place topping St. Isaac.

 

Katharine walked through the front entrance. There was a small line of three vampyres handing over their weapons to a fairly young woman, only one-hundred years old, vampyre wise. Both handed over a maximum of three weapons each. 'Bet they are cocky ones' Katharine snorted. She walked up to the desk the woman was sitting at. She seemed bored beyond all reason and was fiddling with a strap on her dress, tightening it then loosening. Tightening the loosening. It went on for a short minute, Katharine ignored by the woman but not really caring. But she had a job to do and a vow to keep.

 

"Excuse me, girl," Katharine said almost coldly. Patience was not one of her strong suits, she had been patient for over 700 years. She could not wait any longer. She frowned is disapointment when the girl looked up lazily and in annoyance, as if Katharine had interrupted something of importance. "All of the weapons or most of them?" she demanded to know of the woman.

 

She looked back down at her hands, still leaning back in the chair. "Chill out, lass. Ain't no one in' hurry. Gatharin' don' start till two hours fro' now," the woman snapped back to her. She had dark blonde hair, wavy and the fronts pulled back behind her head. The woman wore a sleeveless dark fushia dress, the straps lined with white lace to add a hint of class. She cast a glance up at her, head un-moving, and sighed. She hated the 'be remotely nice' policy the prince's right hand man, in this case, woman, Taryn, had set up. "The name's Riley. What can I do ta help ya?"

 

Katharine merely slipped out a small daggar, one less used than the one on her leg. Riley had better catch her meaning.

 

"I see." Riley's accent was very heavy, southern, and sounded as if she, too, had been young when she was turned. "All o' em. Can't have e'ery one killin each otha over the prince. We need ta' keep appearances goin, ya know, kid?"

 

"Quite well." Katharine began dispersing all the weapons she had hidden on her. A small cross-bow included, hidden bewteen the layers of the bottom of her dress, surprising Riley for a short moment. Many daggars, poisons, and powders were laid upon the desk for Riley to deal with and put them where she needed to.

 

Riley pushed the weapons off the desktop into an empty wooden box and pulled out a slip of paper and a pen. "Name, so I can give move ya stuff somewhere you can get it back lata'."

 

"Katharine Mrnyy," Katharine replied quickly, hoping to move along quickly so she could have time to learn the area of the Cathedral. She looked around, her head turned to peer over her shoulder.

 

"A' right. Lemme' get ya room key fo' ya."

 

Katharine's eyes widened noticeably, her head spun back to Riley. "Room?" she repeated.

 

"Yeah, the prince is seein' a lot of women tonight, he won't get ta see'em all in one night," Riley informed, handing her a brass key then a slip of a paper with a number on it. The room number.

 

"And the women aren't allowed to leave if they've already seen the prince?" Katharine asked, more out of curiousity than worry. She could make an exit out if she had too.

 

"Yeah, but most don't because they're eager ta see if they were chosen," Riley stood up and stretched her sleepy bones. Katharine could see the muscles flex in Riley's arms. Hidden strength of a vampyre. If a human looked close enough to a vampyres movements, one could see the red veins under the skin when muscles flexed. Few took notice of it though.

 

"I see. Thank you." She turned around and started down the hall. She was hungry, that much she would admit and she had thousands to choose from. Both humans and her own kind alike. All she had to do was catch or draw one of them alone and she would have her feed.

 

Katharine entered a large ballroom size room. 'An addition to the Cathedral, underground.' Katharine had to admit, she was impressed. She had not thought that an addition would have been made just for this massive event.

 

'Time to start learning what I can of this place.'

 

A/N: well, first chapter and prologue, all in one... I hope you liked it. If you have any questions, just ask.

I have spelled vampire differently for my story.

 

aranea: --latin-- spider's web

 

more chapters on the way... this will be a quick paced story so there will not be a great amount of chapters, but it may have a sequel if this works out the way i planned...