First Hunger

Chapter 6: Realization

Dracula received my signals with a satisfied smile on his lips, took me by the waist and led me out of the castle, towards the forest.

“Let me show you the real pleasures of the night…”

* * *

Like hungry vulture Dracula dove into the forest, an obsessive mad glint in his eyes and fangs bared, while dragging me along. I was unsure and a bit frightened of what was to come. Sure, Carl’s virgin blood was still running in my veins hotly and lively, making my cheeks flush with the memory of it. So I was sated and felt no overwhelming lust for the hunt now.

But my master did. He only did get to taste the last few drops of the delicious friar’s blood and I could tell that his hunger for more had awakened. He was too old and powerful to really starve, but he never would deny himself a good hunt.

We tracked dowmortmortal, a hunter himself and Dracula gained an immense pleasure by following the man silently through bushes and behind rocks, while listening to the raising nervous flutter of the man’s frightened heart. Just when the mortal’s fear lay so heavily in the air that it was almost substantial, Dracula literally threw himself at the man, violently tore the neck’s flesh open to welcome the hot liquid with his tongue. He gained a sick pleasure by being watched. I stood in front of this couple, chest heaving from laboured breath (I almost had lost track of Dracula while following him) and admiring the fascination and twisted beauty of the moment.

Dracula had his arms tightly wrapped around the mortal’s body. The former hunter’s eyes were closed and his mouth had formed an ‘O’. He ’t d’t dare to speak; he had no desire to do so, while listening to the hungry creature’s greedy swallows next to his ear, at his neck. Both involved parties gained pleasure from this killing act and again fascination took a hold on me.

I took a few steps towards my drinking maker and knelt down beside him, feeling the irresistible urge to be near him, to touch him. I brushed his cheek with the back of my hand and felt the stolen body heat, running through Vlad like a fleeing snake. My eyes caught his throat, working with every swallow, and letting my own thirst rise again.

I was so engrossed in watching my master’s throat that I didn’t realize him staring at me.
At my touch he had stopped draining the man and was observing my reactions now. With glowing eyes I watched him, when he dipped a finger into the mortal’s gaping wound and then waved it in front of my nose.

“Try him, he is delicious”, the tempting deep voice rang in my ears.

Losing my last patience and self-control, my tongue shot forward to encircle Dracula’s offered glistening finger. He was right. The blood still held heavy mortal emotions. The hunter’s pleasure in the hunt… the lust he had felt while taking a cheap whore at the tavern where he had come from…the appetite for dinner from last night…

Again I was lost in the memories and feelings of a mortal.
Until I heard a hearty chuckle and the finger was withdrawn from my mouth.

Blinking with confusion, I opened my eyes. Dracula grinned at me.

“Watching you is the only way to really get sated, you know”, his heavy accent rolled over me and he took me by the hand to get us up.

We paid no more attention to the cooling body next to us and moved further into the black of the forest.
I felt hugged by the night, surrounded by only darkness and the nightly sounds of the woods.
Somehow I felt sheltered and at peace, as if I never had belonged to the light of day.

Suddenly, a large creature burst out of the black bushes and intended to throw itself at me with all its weight. Dracula made one, two quick moves and came to a halt right in front of me, shielding my body from the creature’s angry snaps. One of its large paw’s fingernails almost reached my master’s throat.
Furious about this behaviour, Dracula raised a hand and stared the Werewolf deeply into the gleaming eyes.

It took him one, two seconds to gain complete mind-control over the beast, but that was it.
The wolf pathetically whimpered at his loss of self-control, and then cowered in front of Dracula, seemingly waiting for orders from his master.

The Werewolf stirred hidden emotions in me. For a short time the wolf’s venom had cursed in my veins, too. This way I could sympathise with the beast’s feelings. Rage, power, hunger and darkness…but also a strange urge to comply with a vampire’s will. This animal was under Dracula and possessed no remaining own will when in the presence of the master-vampire.
It even bent its neck for Dracula’s better access to the throat, when Vlad kd thd the wolf. He only needed one single rip with one of his fingernails and the animal went down, completely still.

The wolf’s corpse and blood still fumed in the freezing air of the night.
I fought an inner struggle with my emotions. Having witnessed this simple scene, I could identify with this beast. I had no higher position than the animaust ust like the werewolf, I was consumed by simple urges like hunger, rage and passions…but more significant: I was Dracula’s creation, his possession. He could do with me as he pleased and I had no rights or saying in what I wanted or not.

I was damned to surrender to his every command.
I felt an urge to lie down next to this wolf and simply die.

I blinked, still in deep thought, when I suddenly felt a burning sensation on my left cheek.
Dracula had slapped me in the face, wearing a furious gleam in his dark eyes.

“You fool, I just saved you from this animal’s claws and you start to question your existence and our bond again. How dare you!“ his angry voice echoed through the forest.

“I will never be free again…“ I mumbled my random thought and instantly knew that this had been a mistake.

“Of course not, why in Luzifer´s name, do you think, did I change you into one of my kind?“ Dracula mocked me and shook his head at my stupidity.

aredared at him, wide-eyed. I merely had the position of his whore, nothing more. Realization struck me hard.

“Naïve Fledgling, do you still not understand?“ his words hurt me even more and all I desired was to either vanish or die instantly.

“I will never surrender to you!“ I shouted before I turned away and ran for dear life, away from this…thing, as far as possible. Still struggling with my emotions and the instinct to return to my master, I concentrated on each new step until I had reached the approximate core of the forest.

With my bare hands I dug a deep hole into the ground to hide myself from Dracula and the appearing rays of the morning sun. But, most importantly, I wanted to hide from my confused emotions. I wished to get rid of them and wished for numbness…an empty mind for just a while.
Maybe the cool humus that surrounded me now would be able to give me back my rationalism…

With this last hope on my mind, I slowly drifted into a deep sleep…

To be continued…