Chapter 5: Birth of a Monster

“So,” Dante said as he grabbed my hand, leading me to the same leather sofa we’d sat on the night he brought me to my sanctuary. “Don’t you have any more questions for me? Your mind must be racing with thoughts about why I saved you, isn’t it, love?”

“Well,” I started, unsure of how to phrase what I was about to ask, “I don’t want to hurt you, I don’t want to ask some stupid question and I don’t want you to be angry with me if I phrase it wrongly.”

“Ask away, Victoria, I have been through many things in my long life, I’m sure I can handle a few questions from the one I love.” I still had to get used to that, if I was going to stay, that is. Being the one he “loved” is going to be weird. I wasn’t about to say it back, and I was sure he knew that.

I finally just decided, I’d just ask it, just go ahead and ask it. If he was angry, oh well, I wanted to know!

“How were you changed, Dante?” I asked, looking at my hands folded in my lap.

He grabbed my hands and looked into my eyes, I was weak, good thing I’m not standing, I laughed to myself. His eyes kept hold of mine as he started, “I was born September 4th, 1936. I lived in Rome, Italy, the most beautiful place in the world. I was 19 years old, just about to turn 20 in a week when it happened.

“I was walking along the street one night. I disliked the sun, so I always stayed up at night, traveling along the streets. It was my escape, no one was around, I could be alone, alone in my many racing thoughts. And then I saw her. I thought she was an angel. I thought I had died yet I was unsure of how that would have happened without my knowledge,” he laughed to himself.

“She was beautiful, long, auburn hair that flowed past her waist into tiny little curls. She almost glowed in the moonlight, as though she were Aphrodite, the most beautiful goddess. But something was not right with this woman. She was stunning, yes, but her eyes were of a different color. They were of a crimson red, shining and glittering brightly as she approached me. I wanted to run for some reason, feeling moronic that I would even be afraid of this woman.

“She pounced on top of me from almost 15 feet away. I was astonished. She lunged for my neck but I reacted quickly, blocking her thirsty mouth with my arm. I then grabbed her throat with my right hand, using all of my strength to keep her face away. She pinned my left hand down, leaving my arm unable to move. I thought to myself, how can a mere woman be this strong? I couldn’t move. I was frozen to the ground. I was unsure if it was just from pure terror or the fact that she was stronger than anyone I’d ever witnessed. I had built up all the strength I could in my body to hold the woman back, to keep her from killing me.

“She pushed against my arm now with all of the strength in her little body. As fragile as this woman looked, she had the strength of a bull, ready to charge; and I was her prey. She broke through my grip now and bit down on my arm. I screamed. The first time I’d ever screamed in my life. My whole arm was on fire, my veins burned. She lifted her head and bit down again, only this time, on my wrist. My arm went numb from the pain. I was glad, but I was also terrified as to why I was feeling this way. What is this woman? I thought to myself.

“The woman was relentless. She would not let me up for one second, she bit my body over and over again. I wanted this to stop. I wanted to muster up more strength, to get this woman off of me. But I knew my attempts would be futile. She was much stronger than I, especially in this time of hell. I wanted her to leave me alone. What had I done to deserve this fate?” He looked down at his arm, unlocking his fingers from mine. He slowly raised his sleeve, showing me the most horrible thing my eyes had ever witnessed. There were scars going all the way up his arm. My heart burned for him. I wanted to cry in his arms and let all of the pain I had felt for him out. But he was calm as ever. He had told this story before.

“And then,” he started again, looking up at me, “as quickly as it started, it ended.”

I was confused, how could this woman just attack a defenseless man in the middle of the street and just leave him, without finishing off what she had started?

“She left me there, burning, bleeding, dead inside,” he looked at his arm again, tracing the scars. “I knew I’d die, I couldn’t take the pain anymore, the excruciating pain. Everything burned now, not just the wounds, but my entire body. I started to convulse. My whole body shook with pain and agony. My eyes rolled into the back of my head. And then I blacked out.

“I thought I had died. No, I knew I had died,” he looked at me now, sadness filling his eyes. I told myself to be strong, for Dante. He needed me to understand, and I would do whatever in my power to be there for him and to hear his story.

“All I could see was black, there was no light where I was going. I got scared, but told myself to be brave. I was young, yes, but I needed to deal with this right now. No matter how terrible, I must go on, no matter where I end up.”

“That’s so horrible,” I said, my eyes burning with tears.

“I’ve heard worse,” he said, smiling at me, as to make it not so bad.

But I was still confused. What happened after she left him there? Where had he gone? Had he known what he was? Did he know how to handle it?

“I bet you’re wondering where I went, what I did, if I knew what I was,” he said, looking at me with his angel face.

“Wow, you read my mind,” I laughed.

“Well,” he started once again, “I woke up in an alley. I didn’t know how or when I got there but I was there when my eyes opened. My whole body was sore, mostly my heart…well, where my heart had been, and my veins. They still slightly burned.

“The alley was dark but when I had walked into the sun, I noticed something peculiar about my pale skin. It was so pale it was almost translucent. I began to panic, looking around to see if anyone had seen me. To my surprise, no one looked, everyone acted as though I was invisible.

“I was confused. What had that woman been? Was she…was she really a…vampire??? I felt my teeth next. “Hmm,” I thought, “normal.” I didn’t understand. Was she something I had no knowledge of? I had researched vampires before, but they said nothing about the way I was feeling.

“Then I began to feel it.

“The thirst. My throat burned. I began smelling blood. Every person that walked by the alley. I could almost taste their sweet blood.

“That night, I knew I had to do something. I had to hunt, as they called it. I needed nourishment and I would get it however I could. I was out of my mind, a monster.

“Lucky for me, a man walked into the alley that night. He saw me, crouched in the corner, red eyes and all. He ran over to me, grabbed me by my shirt, lifted me in the air, and yelled into my face.

‘Give me everything you have!’

“I looked at him, smirking. I grabbed his throat, crushing his bones. He tried to scream but I was too quick, obliterating his wind pipe. I then went in for what I wanted, what I needed. I bit down on his throat with all of the strength in my jaw. I felt my teeth growing out, making me scream as I sucked this man dry. I lifted my head, screaming out in pain and in pleasure. Pain from my first kill, the blood dripping down my throat, into my body. Pleasure from knowing that I had what I needed, I was one of these…these vampires.

“I let the man’s body fall to the ground. I then felt my teeth. Hmm, I thought again, normal? I was bewildered. Why had my teeth grown when I had bit the man? But went to normal when I was not thirsty anymore?

“This went on for months. I would kill men and women who were on the street, causing the town trouble. I wasn’t a bad man, I was just helping out the ones I loved, right? I was in constant turmoil with myself. Was I really evil? Or was I good? I didn’t know the answer. I just knew that whatever I was doing was quenching my thirst. And when you’re a fresh-born vampire, that is all that matters.”

“Wow,” I said to myself, but of course he had heard me. He looked at me, taking my face in his hands. I almost backed away again but decided to let him do what he was going to do.

“Please understand, Victoria,” his plead with his eyes, “I will never hurt you, this story is a thing of my past, I have changed, I really have. I only hunt people who cause harm, I would never hunt an innocent victim.”

“I understand, Dante. I just don’t understand how you did it. I mean, how you could just know what you had to do, and how you had to do it.”

“I guess you could call it instinct,” he said, looking down again. I could tell that he was ashamed of himself, ashamed of what he had done. But I understood. He wasn’t killing innocent people, he was killing criminals. And honestly, that was fine in my book.

“Well,” he started, “we’ve spent the whole day talking about me, let’s hear a little about your past,” he said, smiling at me.

My stomach started to churn.