Chapter 1

Humankind had changed since he last opened his eyes.

Small wooden houses, replaced by cobblestone, dirt roads now paved, everything had changed in ways he could not explain.

Samael sighed.

The cold night air making his breathe visible, he hugged his coat closer to him but frowned when he sniffed the collar.

He should have killed someone that smelled better, but he had been asleep for a long time and his hunger had grown, he had grabbed the first human he had seen and drained the pathetic little man of his blood.

The blood would sate him for now, till he understood where he was.

He had walked for a time before he came across a building filled with humans, intoxicated humans.

Walking into the building had him covering his nose, at least one thing had not changed, humans still smelled offensive and putrid.

He found a table at a corner, far from prying and curious eyes, he needed to understand, and a place gathered by humans was the best place to be.

"What can I getcha?", a small dark haired woman asked.

He was not sure what food they ate.

"Alcohol" he answered, this was easier.

"What kind?" She asked again, this time sounding impatient.

"Any kind" he replied, she huffed and turned away, Walking to get him his drink.

He sits silently and observes the room, it is a rowdy crowd, he scans the place till he finds what he is looking for.

In the middle of a crowd, a young brunette, with pretty lips, a long neck, pale skin and brown deep set eyes stared at him, her eyes roamed his face, his view is blocked by the bar wrench.

"Here ya go", the woman says, he gives her a smile, which she does not return. Instead she stares at him, he stares at her confused.

"Ya suppose to pay" She says

"Oh but I did ", he replies.

"Oi, I don't know what game you've got going, but

you haven't given me my bloody money".

He smiles, and looks into her eyes.

"Darling, I paid the moment you got to the table."

She blinks, opens her mouth like she wants to reply, closes it and her eyes, shakes her head a little.

"Oh fuck me, must be getting old, sorry about that, enjoy your drink then" and then she leaves.

He brings the cup to his lips and frowns at the smell. smells like piss, he thinks to himself. He drinks it regardless.

The brunette finds her way to his table. She is taller than he thought.

She sits across him, and sets her cup on the table.

"Saw you looking at me", she says, the corner of her cherry lips pulled into a smirk.

"Yes", he replies simply, he has not the energy.

"Like what you see?", she asks as she leans back on her chair.

Samael eyes trail over her body, from her plump lips, to her even plumper breast, her blue clothing hugging her torso, and pushing them up, making a seductive dip in her cleavage. But his main point of focus is her beautiful pale long neck, he can hear the blood pumping through her veins.

He smiles, normally he liked the game, liked to take his time with them, it was always better that way, when they felt safe and tired from being thoroughly fucked, that was when he'd lean their head to the side and sink his teeth into their flesh and drink, they were always slow to understand what was happening to them, but once they did, they would struggle, push against his chest and shoulders, some even hit him, all of them trying to get free, but they were to weak to free themselves. He liked the contrast, from mellow and happy to scared and frantic, he could taste the change in their blood.

However, he was too hungry for that game, and too hungry for sex, so instead he leaned towards her, and looked into her eyes.

"Love, why don't we take this somewhere else"

She blinks, a little dazed, but then she smiles, stands, takes his hand in hers and leads them out of the tavern.

Samael finds himself standing in front of an old gray building, the occupants asleep, their breath low and steady.

"We will have to be quiet, men aren't allowed in here at night"

He nods in response.

He has no problem being quiet, he was a creature of the night, a silent killer, being quiet was in his nature.

Soon they made it to her room. It was small, a single bed in the corner and a desk and chair, one small window and that was all.

"Let me light a candle, unless you prefer the dark?" She was already reaching for her candle.

"Light the candle love".

She smiled, and lit it, then she made her way to him, wrapped her arms around his torso, and held him close to her chest.

A sly smile made its way to her lips, "So shall we?".

"In time love, but first there are a great many things I need to know".

"Like what?" She said as she pulled him towards her bed, she had him sit, straddled his lap, and wrapped her arms around his neck. She was bold, he liked that.

"Like what year it is"

"What?, what year is it?", she replied confused.

He looked into her eyes, "Love I need you to stay perfectly still and answer all of my questions".

Her body relaxed against his own. "Ok"

"Good, now the year".

"We are in the year of our Lord 1719."

He was surprised that 200 years had passed. His plan was to sleep for 400, but an unlucky witch had woken him up.

"Where is this place?"

"This is my room"

"No love, not this exact place, but the land, the kingdom, whatever you humans call it".

"This is the land of Great Bermia"

"So who is your reigning monarch"

"Queen Sol the third of the windors"

He was impressed that the windors kept their power for long.

"Have you knowledge of any witches?"

"Those are children's fairy tales".

He sighs, he does not have anything to ask her, she does not look like she would possess the knowledge he needs.

"Would you be sad if I killed you?", he asks, sweetness lacing his words

"Yes, very much so".

"Do you want to run?"

"Yes" She replies, there is a tremble in her voice, and body, but she cannot move from her current position, he had told her to stay perfectly still.

He smiles at her, and she shakes even more, he can see beads of sweat on her forehead.

"Now darling, I will need you to tilt your head for me, and show me that lovely neck of yours"

She tilts her head, whimpers as she does so.

"You, my darling, will feel just the slightest pinch in your neck. When you do, try not to make any noise, I do not want to rip out your tongue and make everything more bloody than it needs to".

She nods, her whole body shaking.

He leans towards her, mouths at her neck, then he opens his mouth, extends his fangs and bites through her skin.

The moment he breaks skin and her blood pours into his mouth, is euphoric. since he had woken up she was the second person he had sunken his teeth into, but she was better than the previous one, the last one died to fast to have felt any fear, but not this one.

Her blood laced with fear, was heady and brilliantly delicious. But no matter his hunger, he was not one to rush things, so he sat there on her small bed, with her in his laps, and drank from her slowly, savory the taste, he drank until her heart stopped and then he drank some more.

By the time he was done, the candle had gone out.

He pulled her head away from him, and he laid her pale cold body on her bed, and covered her with the blanket. from his position, she looked like she was asleep.

He found a mirror in her room. It is the first time he has had a proper look at himself since he awoke, his long dark hair, full eyebrows, his dark narrow eyes, high cheekbones, strong jaw, eyes that some have told him look feline, a straight nose and full lips. Nothing had changed, save for the fact that he looked thinner and malnourished, but that could be solved with a proper diet of fresh blood and sound sleep.

He slipped out of the building the same way he came.

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Samael found his way back to his resting place, an old cave deep within the woods and his casket buried deep.

He circles the hole in the ground and in his casket, something had woken him up and pulled him out violently. He wondered if this was the work of a courageous witch, or something else. He had the intention of falling asleep, but first he needed to kill whoever disturbed him, then wreak havoc on the humans.

Weeks go by, he compels the master of a mansion to give it all to him including his servants.

He finds himself witches, neither of them give him any information that he wants, each of them claiming they have no knowledge of who woke him up and how to find them. They all became rather over-confident in their abilities, each of them trying to attack him, in the end he had to pry the information from them using rather unsavory methods.

All of that would have been less bloody if he could compel them, but witches were immune to his compulsion. He blamed his mother and brother for that.

He is standing in front of a police station, as they call it, the witch he is looking for is in there.

Inside was filled with people wearing dark red uniforms and silly little hats, they all appeared to be busy, none of them paying any attention to him.

It smelled of sweat and desperation, a hint of death, and dread.

Samael surveys the place, from the uninspiring brown color of the walls, to the unfortunate excuse for decoration.

To his right, are tables and things he does not know the names for yet, honestly he never bothered to learn, to his left are names pinned on the wall, and to his surprise he recognizes the names, they are the names of his dead witches.

He wonders if that is what has the entire building in a ruckus.

"Is there something I can help you with sir?", a young man asks.

"Why yes, I am in search for a man they call Frederick Gills"

"Oh you must mean captain Gills"

He smiles and nods.

"He is in the room in that corner", the young officer points to the door in the far left of the room.

"Thank you".

The office door was made of red jasper wood, the handle made of derium, he could smell the magic infused into them.

Samael smiles. Mr Frederick was definitely a witch.

He does not knock as he enters the office, Frederick looks up from his table.

Samael says nothing as he sits on the chair in front of Frederick.

Frederick....was too long a name

Fred....

Rick....

He liked Rick better.

"Who the hell are you?"

Samael takes in his appearance, from the straight blonde hair, dark brown eyes, freckled cheeks, big crooked nose, small lips and uneven jaw. His features look familiar, and then it occurred to him, he killed a woman who looked just like him, likely a relative.

"I asked you a fucking question"

Samael sighs. Such disrespect.

He wonders if he should have made a grand entrance, and offered the heart of the last witch he killed as warning.

"Well if you really want to know, I am the man that put those names on the wall." He gestures casually to the wall filled with names.

Rick's eyes grow wild, and he reaches for something, but Samael catches his wrist in his grasp.

He tsks

"No none of that".

Rick appeared shocked by how fast he was on the other side of the desk.

"What are you?", Rick asks, his scent already mixing with fear.

"Something old and beyond your capabilities, but to make this easier, I am what you call a vampire", he answers casually, already distracted by how easy it would be to break the man's wrist and he considers doing it.

"What do you want?"

"Oh I want a great many things, but for now just information on the maggot that woke me up"

"I am unsure how I am to know that "

"A witch made my resting place, and only a witch from that bloodline can break it, they would have to be on the same metaphorical land as me for the spell to work".

Rick looks at him like he has grown two heads.

"What?"

"Is that the reason you killed all those people?, my people".

Samael lets go of his wrist and settles back into the chair.

"Well that was the reason I went to them, but most of them died because they tried to fight"

Rick gives him a look.

"Oh you know casting spells and all that", he waves his hands, mimicking the hand movement of one of the witches that tried to attack him.

The man in front of him looks positively livid, Samael could not help but chuckle at his red his face has gotten.

He can see the gears turning in Rick's head, he has the same look that all those witches had before they attacked him.

"Ricky, please perish whatever thoughts of revenge, or self-righteous martyrdom you might have planned, it will fail."

"I can at least try", he sneers.

"Frederick, any move from you and I will turn this whole place into a bloodbath, and I saw a rather handsome officer and I would hate to divorce his head from his body".

He leans towards Rick.

"So calm yourself and answer my questions".

The threat to his subordinates must have quelled his suicidal thoughts.

Rick closes his eyes then inhales deeply and exhales, he does his a few more times and when he opens his eyes, he is calmer than before.

"How may I help you?" Rick asks, there is still an edge to his voice.

"I have told you already, I need to find a witch maggot"

"I know that, but what exactly should I do?"

"You my friend are the witch, you should know how to find your kind"

"It might not be a witch"

It was Samael's turn to look at him like he had grown two heads.

"You said that the witch had to be of the same bloodline, can you not just track the family? "

"Yes I did say that, also I would not be here if I could track the family, its been 200 years"

"200 years?" He looks at him up and down and continues. "Whoever did this might not be a full witch, and likely not a trained one".

Samael leans back on his chair, and places his feet on the table, Rick eyes it with disgust.

"You people must have grown slack, how does an untrained witch get a spell like that"

"That is not what happened"

"Then what is?"

"Almost a century now, a dead son and a dissatisfied queen led to a witch hunt and to the death of countless innocent. with all the burnings and drownings, many of our spells were lost, so were records".

"Ok" he sounded as disinterested as he felt.

"That is probably how your witch got that spell".

"So you can find them, can you not?"

"yes. I need to be in the same place where the original spell was cast"

"That is easy enough, we should go now"

"I cannot, at least not now, I need to gather the things we will need"

Samael nods.

"Tomorrow then"

"will you leave once you have gotten what you wanted?".

"yes I will, I intend on sleeping for a long time".

Ricky replies with a nod.

" I like you"

"what?" Ricky bit.

"well unlike your witch brothers and sisters, you are smart and choose not to fight me. you know I wouldn't have had to kill so many of them if they had cooperated.".

By the time Samael is done talking, the captain's face is red with anger, he tsk at Ricky as he catches his hand reaching for something.

"Ricky, remember the lovely officer?"

The captain exhales through his nose and places his hands on the table.

"Good, I shall take my leave then", he pauses at the door and looks back at Ricky.

"Fredrick, if you attempt anything laughable tomorrow, I will have the heads of everyone you love lined up on your dinner table".

Then he walks out.