Pain

After the strange woman with the beautiful bright smile left, Neculai stood at the railing a little longer watching the city below. The moon sat high in the otherwise dark night. A slight breeze blew the cool air against Neculai's face, but he didn't really notice. He heard the door behind him slide open. He sighed, all Neculai wanted was a little peace, however apparently that was asking for too much, he turned in time to see a tall blonde man walk in.

Neculai paused and stared at the stranger. The man looked familiar for some reason to him. His complexion reminded Neculai of porcelain. He looked to be in his early twenties but gave off the air of someone much older. Neculai watched the elegantly dressed, if a bit old fashionably clothed, gentleman approach wearing a cream-colored Victorian style shirt, button down front with laced double ruffled cuffs, black Victorian men's high waist trousers, and black leather riding boots. For a male, he was beautiful to look upon.

Yet that wasn't what made Neculai pause as he observed the stranger. No, but for the second time that night, a cold feeling ran down his spine. For a strigoi that was unusual. Still, he saw this man's face, not in his dreams, but in his nightmares. What stood out to him was an image of the man looking enraged. His porcelain looks turned waxy in Neculai's nightmares and the enraged face had the blood of someone he loved deeply, smeared over it, a crooked smile drifting off of the sickening image.

Neculai gave the man his full attention as the man walked over to the balcony's edge. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and tapped one out of the pack before placing the thin stick between his lips. He pulled out from the inside of his front jacket a gold and silver lighter he used to light the cigarette. The man puffed on the stick and blew a ring in the air. He laughed and turned back to Neculai.

"Are you enjoying the snacks our host has provided us tonight?" He asked in between puffs. His eyes were blue, so blue they appeared to be almost a deathly white. Those eyes burned holes into Neculai. Almost as if they were seeing too much. As if he could see the man beneath the surface.

"A bit." He replied. "What about you? Are you enjoying the fare and entertainment also?" Neculai asked, leaning back against the balcony railing. He watched the guy carefully, his mind pulling up and discarding images one by one as he sorted through why the man stood out to him. Where had he seen his face before? Neculai never gets nervous or excited and yet here he was for the second time this night, excitement coursing through him. But why?

"The humans were not invited by The Order and should not have been brought out tonight, but between you and I who cares. They are 'mere mortals." Neculai didn't move, didn't even blink. Now he remembered where he had heard that term before and why he looked so familiar. Neculai leaned away from the balcony's rail and walked slowly up to the vampire whose name he had yet to get.

Neculai stopped before him. "You know who I am?" He asked.

"Of course, I remember you," he replied. The smirk was still evident upon his waxy lips as he watched Neculai intently.

"You're that confused brat that clung onto the human woman as she was dying." He chuckled. He brought the cigarette to his lips and puffed before blowing out another ring into the air.

"Yes." Neculai dislike displaying weakness to anyone but he couldn’t think beyond this moment. "That woman was my mother." He said tersely. The man covered his laugh by coughing just before shrugging.

"Ah, so the rumors are correct. You are a half-breed." Now the stranger appeared a lot more interested in Neculai.

"I've always been interested in the strigoi history. So, I spent time collecting books on our species. Along my research, I came across a bizarre story in a rare book I found, of a human and vampire producing a child. I could hardly believe what I read. Could it possibly be true? I thought it was a myth, who would believe such a thing" He seemed to get more excited as he spoke.

"Who knew that the tales I was reading were all true." Neculai had ceased following along with his jabbering. This is the man that started it all for him. This is the vampire he saw in his nightmares. This is the one he was defenseless against. Seething, Neculai's jaw tighten as he repeated his statement.

"That was my mother you killed that day." The stranger's excitement died out if his eyes and a bored look replaced his expression.

"Humans are humans. They're good for substance, but not much else." He paused and observed Neculai before continuing.

"You look hurt by what I said." Neculai for his part was quiet.

The images played out in his mind. The images of the woman he knew as well as he knew of his own existence played before his eyes. Her screams carried forward and the strength in her face as she turned to him and shouted for him to 'leave me', even as she prepared for her own death. The whole thing took no more than a few minutes, but to Neculai it was a lifetime.

She was killed before his very eyes and he was powerless to stop the vampire, especially since he was young and only half-vampire. He was unusually strong for his age as a vampire, but he was no match at the time to the ancient vampire before them. After the vampire had killed his mother, he turned to Neculai laughing as her blood ran down his face.

"I'm sorry, were you saving her for yourself?" He asked but didn't seem interested in an answer.

Neculai had been gripped by fear. Startled to be staring into the face of so much death and carnage. Even though he was a part vampire himself, his mother raised him away from the vampire world. His mother always told him he was unique. He was not like the humans or vampires.

He had wanted to know why that was, but she only told him, he must not expose his secrets, or his secrets could become his weakness one day and get him killed. So, the day the vampire first appeared at the monastery they were staying at, they had been taken completely by surprise.

The vampire had come at dusk. The sun was just setting in the sky. It was evening, and the people in the monastery were at worship. Neculai had been wandering the halls with his mother, who was also his teacher.

She had paused in the middle of explaining the history and people of the place they lived in because a disheveled Father Thomas rushed up to them and told them to hide. A monster had come for them all and he escaped to warn them. Mother had not hesitated as she grabbed my hand and pulled me along with her. She was human but had incredible strength, enough strength to pull him along behind her.

Father Thomas rushed to a spot where a torch was hung along the wall. There was a brick that was slightly uneven from the rest of the bricks that Neculai had never noticed before, Father Thomas pushed it into the wall and they could hear something click into place as an opening was revealed. A small slot, big enough for a slim person to slip inside appeared. His mother pushed him inside the small slot, but he could tell it wasn't enough room for her to fit. He started to push his way back out.

"No Mother, there is not enough room for us all to fit." A commotion down at the other end of the hall could be heard from where they stood. Father Thomas' attention was already lost looking down the hall to where the noise was coming from.

"Hurry Mariva! It's coming!" He turned one last time, blessed them both where they stood, and was gone. His mother looked at him.

"Listen to me Neculai. You are more special than you know. You are not like this monster who is killing everyone. He may have certain gifts as you, but he is not you. You have to live to avenge us." She gripped his hands and stared into his eyes one last time, trying to give him the strength he felt. Then she dropped his hands and shoved him inside, closing the small space in front of him. She turned then and ran to the opposite side of the wall as the monster approached.

Neculai could not stand by and do nothing, so he reached an arm through the slot where the brick would have hidden his view if it had been placed back where it belonged. The man looked like a kid, with porcelain skin, blonde hair that hung down his back, and stained red lips. His fingers had long nails sharpened like talons and blood covered his hands and arms. He used one bloody hand to push the hair back out of his eyes as he stared down at Neculai's mother. Neculai went forward and inch out of the slot, but his mother cast a frightened stare at the stranger but shook her head 'No', which Neculai knew was meant only for him.

"What do you want here, you are an evil man and are cursed. You need to ask God for your salvation and leave this place at once. Maybe your soul could be saved!" She exclaimed. The man watched her before bursting out laughing.

"You think I need salvation!" He laughed some more all the while inching closer to her. She slid away with each step he took to get closer to her.

"Don't we all need salvation?" She stated while watching him. He cocked his head to the side as if contemplating what she had said. All the while Neculai could see she was reaching into her skirts for the ruby and gold encrusted blade she always carried on her person.

"If that is what one seeks. But," he stated as again he advanced a step closer to her.

"I don't seek to have my soul saved. You and the followers of this pompous arrogant hollower may need salvation, but I don't. I have been doing fine on my own for a while now." This time he closed the distance between Neculai's mother and himself. Neculai moved out of the slot, he would have to stop him before he killed his mother. He was apparently already too far gone to save. As Neculai approached the vampire, his mother saw him and shook her head one last time before quickly pulling the dagger she carried all the time out and swinging it in an upward fashion, hoping to catch the monster off guard. However the man was quick and gripped her wrist so fast, it was as if he knew what she would do.

He crushed her wrist with barely a flicker of his fingers. Neculai could hear the bones crack and his mother cried out in pain. But he was too slow or the man was too fast. He had already sunk teeth into her shoulder and neck and drank deeply.

Neculai grabbed him to pull him away from her, but the man was strong and barely budged as he fed. He used one arm to fling Neculai off him and out of the way. Neculai landed on the ground in a fetal position. He sat up and stared in horror as his mother now slumped in the monster's arms.

The man stopped and released her to fall to the ground like garbage.

He turned with Neculai's mother's blood running down his face and chin. The stranger rubbed his hands into the blood and smeared it along his mouth and neck, before licking what remained of the blood off his fingers. He looked up into the shocked expression on Neculai's face and laughed.

"Aah, one of my own heart. You are like me, NO? Of course, you are, I know these things."

When Neculai refused to respond or more to the point could not speak, the man asked.

"What, was she for yourself? Should I have asked you for permission to feed on her?" He asked Neculai, who still could not speak. The man shrugged before turning on his heels and walking off.

Finally, Neculai could move his feet and rushed to his mother's side. He cried out her name but realized she was gone. She had a glassy stare in her eyes. Neculai cried at that moment for the woman who had meant so much to him, for the one person who taught him so much.

He sat there the rest of the day with his mother's body. He didn't move until a little after midnight. The moon was high in the night sky and Neculai spent the rest of the night and the next morning burying the dead including Father Thomas whom he also found dead in the chapel...