Page 170 of Castings & Curses

In that moment, I felt as if I were losing myself, my humanity slipping away like grains of sand through my fingers. The transformation was a dance with death, a trial that tested the limits of my resolve. But my lust for power, my ambition to emblazon my legacy in history and beyond, drove me onward. I refused to succumb to the agony that threatened to consume me.

A day or more passed, and as the last rays of sunlight vanished from the horizon, the pain subsided, and I found myself gasping for breath, reborn into a world forever altered. A newfound strength pulsed through my veins, and I stood taller, feeling invincible. I was now a creature of the night, a vampire—a being of darkness and shadows.

I saw Seraphus in his true form, his skin awash with a dim glow that cast his black eyes into deeper shadows, save for an enigmatic amber light in their depths. His teeth were sharper than a wolf’s, his hands clawed, and his body lean and coiled with inhuman strength. “You’ve gotten your wish, my lord. But in exchange, the vampire council will summon you, and then you must pay their price.”

“Price?” I gasped. Then realized I no longer breathed and had to choose to draw in air to speak. My flesh was cold, and when I looked down at my hands, they were nearly white as bone.

“Did you think immortality would come without cost?” Seraphus smirked. “For now, go. Your body will instruct you how to survive.”

Even as he spoke, hunger unlike anything I had ever known surged through me. It was an abyss, a never-ending void that screamed for one thing—blood. As the truth of my new existence dawned on me, I retreated into the shadows. I had become like Seraphus, the embodiment of the stories told to frighten children, the monster that lurked in the dark.

As the magnitude of my choice washed over me, I was swallowed by a sea of regret. In my desire to understand Sage and her magic, I had plunged myself into a world far darker and more terrifying than anything I had ever known. My dreams of power had been realized, but they were now shackled to a nightmare of my own creation.

I staggered out of the hut into the evening, where everything seemed limned in moonlight. I looked out over the forest and saw the trees as if it were bright noon, the colors all silver and white. The voices of the night creatures, once haunting and strange, were as sweet as music, and the breeze carried to me the scent of life, of blood, of lust… Dragos, my faithful gray stallion who had been through many a fierce battle with me, snorted fearfully as I approached. Only with a firm hand was I able to mount and gallop back to my castle.

As the days passed, I was lost in the throes of my newfound existence. I clung to the shadows, avoiding the sunlight that threatened my existence. The man who was once master of his sprawling estate now found himself imprisoned within it. Vasile eyed me sorrowfully, yet he remained faithfully by my side until I sent him away, with a promise to send for him when I had control over my impulses again.

Thirst was an ever-constant companion, a siren’s call, relentless and potent. Each heartbeat I heard was a resounding drum, each pulse a tantalizing whisper. I was a predator now, destined to stalk the very people I had once ruled. In the dead of night, I found myself venturing out, my heart heavy with regret, my body driven by a monstrous appetite. I barely restrained myself long enough to hunt among Mirea’s villages rather than my own. I yearned to destroy the man himself, but Radu was well guarded, and my vampiric strength was fledgling and uncertain. I needed time, but now…I had all the time in the world. A prospect that terrified me more than I’d anticipated.

Each encounter was a battle, a struggle between the lingering remnants of my humanity and the beast that raged within. Every time I succumbed, each drop of blood that quenched my thirst left me more hollow, more detached from the man I once was. Each life taken was a nail in the coffin of my past self, a self that was fading into a distant memory.

The reality of my choice bore heavily upon me. I was no longer Cristian Lazar, the nobleman. My ambitions had led me astray, turning me into something I hardly recognized.

My nights were filled with self-loathing, my days filled with a longing for a life I could no longer have. The visage of Sage that once tantalized me with hope now filled me with deep despair. I yearned to see her, to hear her laughter, but I couldn’t risk her becoming a casualty of my monstrous appetite.

As I gazed out the window at the sprawling estate that lay bathed in moonlight, I made a solemn vow. I would find a way to break free from this transformation.

I returned to Seraphus’s hut, only to find it gone as if it had never been. From then on, I started an arduous quest, a pursuit for redemption. I studied ancient texts, unraveled cryptic enigmas, and sought knowledge from forgotten lore. The answer had to be there, buried beneath centuries of knowledge and history. It was not just for me, but for the people who cowered in fear each night, unknowingly prey to the monster their nobleman had become.

I locked myself away in the dusty, forgotten corners of my castle’s library, my only company the faded parchment and ancient scrolls. In those silent, starlit hours, I learned of methods to feed without causing harm. Animal blood could sustain me, though it left me feeling unsatisfied and weakened. It was a meager substitute for the crimson nectar that truly slaked my thirst. Yet, I embraced the necessity of the sacrifice.

I learned of other vampires who had mastered their darker impulses, finding ways to coexist with humans without causing harm. Traveling only by night, I sought guidance from elusive hermits and scholars, seeking to unlock the secrets of my kind.

With each passing day, I longed to confess the truth to Sage, to tell her of the monster that lurked within me, but the fear of destroying her was a specter that haunted my every thought.

CHAPTER7

Sage

Another nightmare rousedme from sleep. My eyes fluttered open to the darkness of my cottage, and my heart pounded as an eerie sensation washed over me. It was Cristian. Something awful had happened.

I thought back to the last time I had seen him and remembered the way he had looked at me before he left my cottage. His words still rang in my ears,“I look forward to learning more.”

I had shown him my world, and he appeared to want to see more, but as the weeks passed and there was no word from him, my hurt feelings soon turned to anger.

I’d heard rumors that he’d become some kind of blood-drinking monster, terrorizing the neighboring villagers at night, but I scoffed at that. Cristian had been a topic of fear and envy since he’d returned after his father’s passing, and I’d assumed that was the source from which the latest round of gossip had arisen. It was my nightmares that cast some doubt on my theory, and I couldn’t ignore them anymore. What if the villagers were right, and Cristian had actually become a monster?

I had to find out, so I riffled through old tomes, scrolls with ancient glyphs, and faded maps that I’d collected over the years. The table in my modest cottage groaned under the weight of my magical arsenal. My heart ached with concern, a heavy dread building as I unraveled what might have happened to Cristian.

I pulled out an aged volume bound in leather, its pages whispering untold stories of the supernatural. As I traced the gilded title,The Chronicles of Blood, my fingers tingled with unease. Between witches and vampires lay an ancient curse. A thousand years ago, a powerful sorcerer had lusted after a beautiful witch, only for her to betray him by falling in love with a vampire. In retaliation, he had rendered a terrible curse so that no witch and vampire could be together again. If they should evoke the curse, they, their covens, and their councils would lose their powers forever.

Since then, the covens vowed to only serve light and life. In retaliation, vampires turned to darkness. And so for millennia, witches and vampires had been anathema to each other, and would be for eternity.

“Knowledge, Sage. It’s your only weapon,” I muttered to myself as I dove into the book, each page revealing more about the enigmatic creatures of the night. Their powers, their curses, their vulnerabilities—everything was there, written in ink that had turned sepia with time.

Hours slipped away, daylight receding, making room for the soft glow of my candles. I squinted at the script, my eyes stinging with fatigue. Yet I persevered, driven by a compelling need to understand what had happened to Cristian.

“Vampires,” I said aloud, as if hoping to dissipate the eerie aura the word brought. “Immortal, strong, but cursed with an insatiable thirst for blood. Forced to live in the shadows, out of touch with humanity, their nature forever tied to their monstrous desires.”

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