Chapter 01

The mystery of a strange newcomer in a small town of Edenton was one for the tales. Some argued he ate people, drank their blood and was not born like normal people but rather he just existed and no one knew where he came from. His name was Criston Barth and anyone who asked him where did the Barths come from, he usually says his grandfather owns luxury hotels in St Barths, hence the name.

However, just by the way he looked and the things he owned such as a whole mansion across the small town of Edenton in North Carolina, people believed indeed his grandsire owned hotels in St Barths. He also owned five luxurious cars, all the modest and beautiful ones you know of.

A Lamborgini, Rolls Royce, Range Rover, Bentley and his most favorite a Porsche. The mansion was old and it dated back to the eighteen hundred since the very first settlers of Edenton, at that time the town was nothing but just a small village with few inhabitants. Currently, Edenton is packed with ancient homes from the earlier centuries showcasing how much history it carries.

Criston renovated the mansion by fixing the colors, the rooftops, the walls were painted white and even the gardens became alive once again. Before he moved in, the constructors spent a significant amount of time fixing the mansion, it took them a whole year getting it together.

The settlers of the Edenton were curious to see who will move into the mansion especially after it was termed as cursed and some even said when they sneaked inside the old building they could hear screaming voices of the dead. At night, the mansion was dark and no one dared to go inside. But since then, Criston fixed the gates and placed lights all over the place.

That same very dark and gothic mansion which many people were afraid of, was now glittering in colorful lights and sometimes music could be heard from the inside. The owner liked jazz, soothing ballads and old songs dating to the nineteen twenties. At first when the good people of Edenton didn't know who actually moved into the scary mansion, they thought it would be an old man.

A fat bald old man in his seventies maybe, but when Criston decided to take out trash on a sunny Sunday afternoon, that's when everyone was stunned. "He's just a young man possibly still a teen" they gossiped in the squire market, the restaurants and coffee places.

"What does he do for a living?" They all asked themselves but no one ever found out what did Criston really do for living apart from the fact that he was a spoiled rich kid.

Life in Edenton was slow, pretty much predictable for a small with just forty-five thousand residents. It was peaceful throughout the year and with cool temperatures even during the summer, bitter winters however but the residents loved Christmases.

Edenton was also home to Albemarle Sound, a large estuary on the coast of North Carolina and most of motels, restaurants and coffee shops were built on the waterfront so customers can enjoy the breathtaking view of the estuary. Much of the water in the Albemarle Sound is brackish and fresh opposed to the saltwater of the ocean.

There were three bars in town known to host the residents during the night when they are off work and in need of refreshments. Most of the residents worked from home because they were old, or couldn't find a job in that small town hence working remotely from other big companies out of Edenton.

There was one hospital, Kennedy Franklin Memorial Hospital which was huge and the only medical center for all the residents. Most of the doctors and specialists in the hospital came from farthest part of town and they weren't indigenous people, they chose Edenton because of its quietness and cool weather.

One of the nurses who chose the hospital in Edenton because she wanted to get out of New York after she just ended a long term relationship was Zaya Johnson. A twenty-five-year-old registered nurse, she was black, tall as she stood at five foot eight, slim and fit. Zaya worked out four times a week and she always ate healthy foods.

Zaya was part of "Goodlife Angels" which was made up of five nurses. Three of them were men, and two women including Zaya but they were all white. It was so rare to see a black woman in Edenton, although there was a restaurant owned by a black man called David alongside the waterfront area.

Zaya lived in a normal two-bedroom house with a porch on the front. All the houses in the downtown area in Edenton looked the same, they were all painted white and had porches with small gardens on the front. The two bedrooms were upstairs while a small living room, kitchen and dining room were downstairs.

The other half part of town was occupied by other houses which still had historical touch to it and that's where Criston Barth lived with his neighbors. Criston's mansion was the only house which was luxurious and that's why he became perhaps the most famous vampire in Edenton, not only his thirst for blood made him famous but it was his house too.

Ever since he moved in Edenton, two months earlier no one knew who he was. He wasn't seen in daylight and some people said he was lurking in the shadows during the hour of the wolf, but those weren't just rumors it was true. However, those who came in contact with Criston never lived to tell a tale.

Born as Criston Elizabeth Barth in 1814 in the clumsy and dumpy streets of London, by the time he moved in Edenton, Criston was two hundred and eight years old. He's been around for a really long time and he's seen everything, from the French Revolution to all world wars and more horrible things than one can ever articulate.

The reason why he was in Edenton was still unknown, but for once a vampire who terrorized villages and was famously known as the "Mississippi Vampire" during the late eighteen hundred, there was a secret of darkness he was hiding from everyone.

In year 1896, Criston travelled to Mississippi with his vampire friends and swept off the villages. They bled the river Mississippi for two weeks and filled it with blood, the so called sheriffs came and left but Criston intended to make a name for himself and lingered in the shadows of the forest