Felipe knew what he was craving was abhorrent, yet he yearned for it anyway. Crippled by the ungodly desire, Felipe roamed the winding, cobblestone streets in search of his first human victim, when it struck him—his wife! Felipe focused his thoughts, bringing Lilith into his mind’s eye. But instead of teleporting to her, Felipe’s mind drew a blank. Frustrated, Felipe refocused again, but no matter how hard he tried, he could not penetrate the veil of darkness.
“I don’t believe this! I can manipulate people’s thoughts. I can will myself wherever I wish, I can transform into animals, but I cannot will myself to my wife? I’ll just go home. I know Lilith will be there.” Felipe closed his eyes and reopened them again, finding himself standing on a Moorish hilltop in the town of Vejer. He tried again to will himself to Lilith, but only saw a black void. “Damn that bitch and her magick!”
Soon, Felipe’s anger gave way to yet another wave of unnatural thirst and hunger. He doubled over in pain. Nightmarish images of Zaybeth flashed before his eyes. Felipe grabbed his head and screamed in agony. He ran like a mad man, trying to flee from the images that bombarded his thoughts. He vanished, reappearing in Seville.
Using his hypnotic powers, Felipe persuaded an innkeeper to allow him to occupy a room free of charge, with no questions asked. The grey-haired man cheerfully obliged and personally escorted Felipe to his room. Once inside the small, shabby room, Felipe stripped naked and transformed into the vampire. He vanished, reappearing on a farm in the Andalusian countryside.
Felipe swooped down in the middle of a herd of cattle. With the precision of an eagle, he captured a fat calf and gorged on the animal. The warm blood soothed his parched throat and the flesh of the calf filled his hungry belly. But moments later, the ungodly thirst and hunger returned. So Felipe devoured yet another calf, then a cow. Within an hour, Felipe had consumed the entire herd, yet the savage thirst and hunger still burned deep within him. Felipe moved to a nearby pasture where he spotted a flock of sheep.
The pre-dawn sky had given way to a glorious sunrise. A shepherd scratched his scraggly beard as he stepped out into the field. The shepherd dropped his staff, unable to move. The man was frozen in horror at what the sunlight revealed—a pasture littered with mutilated, half-eaten sheep carcasses.
“Ya Allah!” the shepherd shrieked.
Farm hands came running to the shepherd’s aid. Their eyes widened as an eight-foot tall, winged vampire rose up out of the field.
“Iblis! Iblis!” (Devil! Devil!) the men screamed.
Felipe glared at the men and gave a mighty roar. He stretched his mighty wings and flew away, leaving the shepherd and the field hands shaking in terror.
FAREWELL MY LOVE
15 July, 1456. Seville.
Felipe sat in a worn-out, brown leather chair, staring motionless at the four walls of the small, shabby room at the inn. It was his nineteenth birthday. He always hated his birthday. Now, thanks to the curse, he would have to endure five-hundred-and-fifty more of them. It had been a month since he had been turned into a vampire and he still could not bring himself to eat the flesh or drink the blood of a human being.
Instead, night after night, Felipe roamed the Andalusian countryside raiding farms, feasting on the flesh and blood of animals. But the blood of beasts only staved off his ungodly thirst for a moment before it was back again, burning even deeper inside of him. Before long, Felipe had raided every farm. There were none to raid. He had to face facts; he needed something more satisfying to quench his hunger—he needed human flesh and blood. Felipe shuddered at the thought.
He stood up and walked over to a small cracked mirror hanging on the far wall and ran his fingers across his face.
“I wonder what I will look like five-hundred years from now. Will I look like some walking corpse with hanging, rotten flesh? Or, will I cease to age all together? God, I can’t go on like this!”
Felipe turned his back to the mirror, sweeping back his bangs from his face in a fit of frustration. “Somehow I have got to find Lilith and persuade her to lift the curse,” he said, sitting back down in the worn-out, brown leather chair. “If only I could remember where we live.”
The day gave way to night and Felipe found himself still sitting in the same chair, gazing out at the night and the stars.
“Oh, it’s no use, Lilith’s magick is blocking my memory,” Felipe said standing.
How Felipe longed for his family, but he longed for Zaybeth most of all. Felipe closed his eyes and tried to imagine her soft body pressed next to his. He imagined her gentle touch upon his bare chest. Felipe’s fingers rummaged through his pockets until they found the cross she had given him.
“Zaybeth,” he whispered as he kissed the cross. He walked over to a dilapidated oak dresser that was sitting in the corner of the room and opened the drawer. He placed the cross safely inside and then shut the drawer. His eyes looked up. “God, forgive me, but I have to see her.” He vanished to a nearby garden where he remembered seeing a patch of red carnations. He plucked the largest one.
Felipe willed himself to his family’s estate. He stood in the courtyard and commanded a thick swirling mist to camouflage him. He looked around at the guards strategically placed on the rooftop of the estate and in the guard tower and smiled. Felipe knew he could kill every soldier in a manner of seconds. Humans were no match for the mighty vampire.
But Felipe had not come home to kill, but rather to remember what once was—a time that passed too quickly, which he now regretted taking for granted. Felipe smiled as he thought back on all the times he and his brother spent playing in the courtyard. His eyes looked to the patio where he and his family had many of their meals. Felipe’s eyes trailed up to the stone and wrought iron balcony outside the second-story parlor, where he and his family enjoyed breakfast. He closed his eyes, remembering the aroma of fresh baking bread and the taste of Gertrudis’ spicy, Jamón serrano (dry-cured Spanish ham).
Felipe stared at the courtyard, recalling the first time he ever looked into Zaybeth’s vivid, jade green eyes and fell in love with her. He looked down at the red carnation in his hand. He twirled the flower between his forefingers His eyes shifted up to Zaybeth’s bedroom window. With a wave of his hand, Felipe commanded the mist to conceal him as he ascended up to Zaybeth’s bedroom and vanished, reappearing inside the room.
Felipe stood over Zaybeth, admiring the angelic beauty with hair the color of sun-kissed fire that had captured his heart.
“I promise my love, I will find a way to break this curse. In the meantime, may God watch over you and protect you,” he whispered. Suddenly, Felipe’s senses became overwhelmed by the sweet, rich aroma of fresh blood. He sniffed the air. The fragrance was coming at him from all directions.
She must be having her monthly.
The ungodly thirst for blood crept back into Felipe’s throat. He swallowed hard.
Felipe fought to suppress the unholy thirst that had suddenly possessed him. The wicked hunger burned deep, searing the insides of his throat, like acid. Unwillingly, Felipe began to transform. His body jerked and contorted. Fangs slowly began to emerge. His keen, vampiric eyes wasted no time zeroing in on Zaybeth’s pulsating jugular.
Felipe lowered his mouth to the crook of Zaybeth’s neck. His eyes followed the faint pulse of her carotid artery supplying rich, precious blood to her head and neck—blood Felipe so very much desired to drink.
The whites of Felipe’s eyes turned translucent, and then red. His pupils dilated, becoming black. He sniffed the air, savoring the bouquet of the life-sustaining liquid he was about to drink. Felipe’s razor sharp fangs were within inches of breaking Zaybeth’s skin.
No, I mustn’t turn you.
Felipe doubled over in pain and slowly backed away from the bed. This was it! He could no longer fight the ungodly thirst and hunger. The time had come for Felipe to unleash the monster—the vampire. He placed the single red carnation beside Zaybeth’s pillow.
“Goodbye my love,” Felipe said somb
erly. He vanished.
Zaybeth awakened, yawned, and stretched. The back of her hand brushed up against something. She rolled over and discovered it was a carnation. She picked up the flower and sat up in bed. Her eyes searched the darkened room.
“Felipe?” she said, calling out into the night.
FIRST KILL
Driven to the brink of madness by the hellish craving for human flesh and blood, Felipe hid in the shadows of Toledo’s market square waiting for his first human victim. A few minutes passed and a short, blond, curly-haired man stepped from around the corner. Felipe recognized the man. It was the adulterer he had seen a month earlier.
“I see you still haven’t learned your lesson. As I see it, I’m doing your wife and your mistress a favor,” he snarled.
Felipe began following the man, stalking him for several blocks down the winding cobblestone streets of Toledo. Just as the man crossed the road into a backstreet, Felipe headed him off—cornering the man in the alleyway.
The whites of Felipe’s eyes turned translucent, with the Eye of Saturn swirling in his pupils just before they turned pitch black. His muscles began to ripple and bulge. His back arched. Enormous black wings replaced his shoulder blades. His feet distorted and his legs elongated. Talons replaced Felipe’s finger and toenails. Next, Felipe’s skin turned black and slick, devoid of any hair. His facial features began to distort, his ears elongated and became pointed, his nostrils pulled back, leaving nothing but two black holes. In seconds, Felipe had made the full transformation into the vampire. He gave a low, sinister growl.
The man found himself face to face with an eight-foot tall, black-skinned, winged vampire. Frozen in horror, the man’s mouth gaped wide.
“Mi Dios!” he said, relieving himself in his breeches.
Felipe unfurled his wings.
The man tried to run, but fangs clamped down on his throat.
Felipe drank the man’s blood and then ripped his head clean off his shoulders. He tore open the man’s torso, slicing through him with one talon, the man’s innards spilling out onto the street. Quickly, Felipe wrapped the adulterous man’s large intestine, around his sharp claw, raising it to his mouth he slurped long and hard, devouring the man’s intestines and innards.
Nightmarish visions of Zaybeth’s smiling face flashed before the Felipe’s eyes. With each bite he took, Felipe could almost taste Zaybeth’s sweet kiss upon his lips. Felipe staggered away from the half-eaten man, allowing the man’s hollowed body to fall to onto the cobblestone street. Transforming into his human form, Felipe stood stark naked in the middle of street looking at the half-eaten man lying in the street. The reality of what he had done sank in, Felipe became visibly shaken. Footsteps fast approaching. He vanished into mist, reappearing in his room at the inn.
Now that his ungodly craving for human blood and flesh had been satisfied, his nerves began to settle. Felipe returned to the small room at the inn, where he sat motionless in the leather chair. He glanced out of the window into night’s sky. What had he done? Killing livestock was one thing, but killing a human being was another matter altogether.
It was midday and Felipe remained seated in his room. Although the sunlight had no ill-effect on him, Felipe kept the curtains drawn tight. He could not take the chance of someone discovering his terrible secret. He reached across a side table for a jug of fine wine and poured himself a cup. He might be a vampire, but Felipe refused to abandon his appreciation for an exceptional cup of fine wine.
He finished the wine and a deep sorrow overcame him. Felipe squeezed his eyelids tight, hoping to cry, but no tears would come. He stood up, pushed back his hair out of his face and walked over to the bed, collapsing on it. Felipe curled his body a fetal position and pretended he was nestled in the comfort of his mother’s arms. But Felipe was no longer human and did not need the comforting embrace of a mother. Immune to all human ailments and infirmities— he was invincible! He no longer needed to sleep, defecate, urinate, or even bathe. Then it hit him.
Felipe had concentrated so much on himself, he had forgotten that Lilith had cursed Zaybeth as well. She was the only one who could destroy him. That is, unless he turned her into a vampire.
“How nice of Lilith to make that a condition of the curse.” He poured another cup of wine, this time he allowed his tongue the pleasure of enjoying the bouquet. “There simply has to be a way to break this curse.” Felipe realized, even if he was successful in removing the curse, he would still be dead—nothing could ever change that fact. But at least Zaybeth would be spared.
It was late afternoon when Felipe took to the streets. He simply had to find Lilith and beg her to remove the curse. He had made his first human kill and hoped that would satisfy her. Being well-known in the region made it harder for Felipe to ask anyone where he lived—he would sound like a raving lunatic. So, Felipe decided to probe the minds of passersby in the crowded streets and bazaars, maybe they could shed some light on where he lived. But each time Felipe probed the minds of strangers, he could only see a black void.
“Dammit, Lilith’s magick must be blocking my powers. Maybe I will have better luck if I transform into the next person I see.”
Several people rushed past Felipe, not giving him the opportunity to put his plan into action. He was about to give up when he saw a middle-aged businessman strolling along casually down the street. Felipe smiled.
“He’ll do.” Felipe transfixed his eyes on the man.
The businessman stopped walking and stood in a trance-like state, stared deep into Felipe’s mesmerizing eyes. The man’s entire life’s history transferred into Felipe mind. The man blinked a couple of times and resumed walking, not knowing what had just transpired.
Within seconds, Felipe had transformed himself into the businessman’s likeness. To confirm if he had indeed transformed into the middle-aged man, Felipe stepped inside a tailor shop. There, he saw a dressing mirror, examining his face. He looked exactly like the man, except for the clothing, no one could tell them apart.
A clothier came out from the back of the shop. He was a fat, grizzled-bearded man. He wore an orange turban and layers of colorful loose fitting clothing, including a vest and a silk gold sash that closed his garments. The clothier gave a wide grin and gave Felipe a hug.
“Marhaban,” (Hello) Tarig, my old friend, it has been a long time. What can I do for you?”
Felipe stammered as he scanned the man’s thoughts. The clothier’s name was Maurice. Tariq was an old acquaintance and customer, but not a close friend.
“Maurice, as you can see, I am in desperate need of new clothing,” he said, looking down at his ragged clothing.
The clothier spun Felipe around. He grabbed at his beard, shaking his head in disbelief, making a disapproving clicking sound with his tongue.
“Yes, it has been a long time, my friend,” he joked. “Come, I know just how to fix that.” The clothier measured Felipe and brought out many different fabrics for him to choose from.
“Maurice, I’ve been meaning to ask you, there is talk of a new statesman, a Felipe de Hayos, a Spaniard that has been working with the Sultan Said.”
“Yes, yes, I have heard of him.”
“Do you know where he lives? I should like to pay him a visit.”
“Now, let me see.” The man scratched his wiry beard. “I believe the Spaniard lives in Granada, in a white palace in the valley of the sun. Tell me, what business do you have with him?”
“It’s personal.”
“I see. Well, I hear his wife is very beautiful. Perhaps you have some business with her, huh?” the man said, grinning.
Felipe gave the clothier a strained, but polite smile.
“Well, you can pick up your new garments in a fortnight.”
“Thank you Maurice. It was good to see you again,” Felipe stared at the man, projecting his thoughts and will.
“You will make all of my clothing without question. Do you understand?”
The clothier nodded.
Felipe smiled.
“Well, Tarig, my good friend, it was very good to see you. I shall get started right away on your clothes.”
“It was very nice seeing you again, Maurice. I have a feeling we shall be seeing more of each other. Until then, my dear friend,” Felipe said.
“As-salaam alaikum,” (Peace be with you,) the clothier said, waving goodbye.
“Wa’alaikum Assalam,” (Peace be unto you,) Felipe responded bowing and leaving the store. He ducked down a deserted alleyway. With a wave of his hand, Felipe was himself again. He vanished. He reappeared in Granada searching until he found the valley of the sun. Felipe stood on a hilltop and stared vacantly down at the whitewashed stoned Palacio del Sol—his home. Strangely, he had no memory of ever living there.
Felipe made several attempts to teleport to the palace, but his powers would simply not work. A boy on a horse trotted past him, heading down the road to his farm. Felipe used his hypnotic powers to persuade the young lad to halt. He put the boy in a trance and borrowed his horse. He promised the lad that he would return the steed. A promise he fully intended to keep.
Felipe mounted the horse and rode to the mouth of the valley, within a few hundred feet of the palace. Without warning, the horse reared up on its hind legs, knocking Felipe to the ground. Felipe got up on his feet, brushed himself off and walked forward, but he staggered backward after striking an invisible barrier.
“Lilith!” Felipe called out. “Please, I have come to ask for your forgiveness. I made my first human kill. You have your revenge. Now, please, I beg you to remove the curse.”
Eerie murmurs echoed throughout the valley. Felipe stood and spun around, looking in all directions. He felt his vampiric powers being drain from his body.
Eye of Saturn (The Daughters of Saturn Book 1) Page 21