Samantha shuddered.
Leisha studied her for a few seconds. “My father gestured for the men to come. They made a circle around Ptah’s body, raising their knives to kill him. Then, before they could even digest what was really happening, one of them went flying through the air and through the wall of the hut. Ptah, already on his feet, grabbed another man’s head—I can still hear his screams in my mind—twisting it until it snapped. The third man froze, completely terrified. Ptah lifted this man off his feet and bit his arm. The man cried out in pain but he seemed unable to move or do anything to stop Ptah from draining out his life. Then he looked at my father and Tafari. They were frozen under his gaze. I thought they were about to die in that moment, but Ptah just looked at them.
“‘Thank you,’ he said in a strange voice. It sounded like Ptah, but it also reverberated some kind of power when he spoke.
“With that, Ptah turned and looked directly at me. Somehow, he knew I was outside, watching through the cracks of the hut. He stared at me for what felt like an eternity, though it was only for a second. He broke the stare, leapt out though the ceiling, and disappeared into the night.”
Leisha turned to face Samantha. “He was the first of our kind.”
CHAPTER 8
Samantha shook her head. “But I don’t understand. What did they do to Ptah?”
“You see, there was no way to kill the chaos demon while it was in its spirit form. We had no weapons to fight against something like that, so my father pulled its spirit into a human body to make it vulnerable enough to be killed.” Leisha turned away, her face full of sorrow. “What no one realized was that the demon had wanted this to happen all along. Its powers would have been limited in spirit form, but when it was able to fully posses a body as its own, its potential to wield over humans became invincible.”
“Oh.”
Leisha just nodded solemnly.
“But why did you become a vampire? I can’t imagine you would want to leave your family for a chance at immortality.”
Leisha’s expression turned bitter. “There is more to the story that you should know.” Sighing wearily, she expounded. “Ptah had been openly interested in courting me as well. When he found out that Tafari and I were to wed, he was very angry with me. That was another reason Tafari stopped working for him.” Leisha paused, looking pensive. “I think the real Ptah—the Egyptian who had desperately mined for all that gold—I think he died the moment the demon entered his body. We only call him Ptah because there was never any name for the demon that we know of. So, while Ptah was dead, I think the demon retained all of his memories, including his attraction for me.”
“But you couldn’t have left Tafari for Ptah!” Samantha was outraged, a feeling of fury bubbling up through her stomach. “You were just telling me what you had with Tafari was true love! If so, how could you do that to him?”
“You’re jumping ahead of the story again,” Leisha snapped. “Let me give you a little advice: Do not judge until you have all the information.”
Samantha realized with shock that her accusation had hurt Leisha. She flushed red and quietly murmured, “Sorry.”
Leisha regained her composure and continued in a detached manner. “Like I said, Ptah—the demon—seemed to have an attraction toward me. He would sneak into our hut in the middle of the night to seduce me, urging that I join with him. I always refused, but was scared to wake up Tafari and tell him about it. I was afraid Ptah would kill him if Tafari tried to defend me. But then, Ptah suddenly stopped coming into our hut, and I thought he had left us alone.
“But he was simply taking his death and destruction to other villages. The terror of having our blood sucked was horrible, and everyone lived in fear for months.
“One day, Tafari came home from a meeting with other shamans, more hopeful than I had seen him in a long time, and told me the shamans had figured out how to combine their powers to create a breed of immortals.”
“Immortals?”
“Yes. The shamans had discovered that they could modify a complex healing spell to create immortality, which could make them strong enough to fight the vampires. If they became wounded, they would heal rapidly, even faster than a vampire can. Death was still a threat, but at least they had a chance of fighting the vampires. It sounded promising, and Tafari’s excitement was contagious.”
Leisha hesitated. “Then he told me he had been chosen to become one of the immortals. He was to go to a ceremony the following evening to take an oath—he would dedicate every fiber of his being to locate and destroy any and all vampires. After he pledged himself, they would proceed to make him an immortal. He was to be one of the leaders for the new order of immortals.”
Samantha was about to vocalize more confusion, but Leisha cut her off with a gesture of her hand. It was obvious this was truly difficult for her to divulge. Seeing this, Samantha forced herself to sit quietly.
“The night Tafari left for the ceremony was the night Ptah sent his men to capture me and my daughter. I fought hard, but they were too fast and too strong. They blindfolded me and bound my wrists, and carried us to a cave somewhere . . .”
Suddenly, the man carrying Leisha stopped, while the other one carrying her daughter continued on. Leisha tried to protest, to struggle to get to Adanne, but the man’s grip tightened, taking the air out of her lungs.
“Don’t worry about her, Leisha.” The voice came from behind, but she immediately recognized it.
“What do you want with us, Ptah?” she gasped. The air was still not completely back in her lungs. He gave a soft, deep laugh and gestured for his man to release her. “I must admit, I don’t care much about your daughter, but I do have a great deal of interest in you. There’s something different about you, and it’s more than just your fair skin.” He walked around her until their noses almost touched. “There’s a spark in your eyes I wish to ignite.”
She shuddered in revulsion. “I do not understand what you mean. But if your interest is only in me, then why did you bring my daughter?”
Ptah looked smug. “She’s my leverage.”
“What? Leverage for what? You already have me here.”
He began to pace casually in front of her as he spoke. “Ah, but that’s not enough. You notice I have created beings that are like me?”
She nodded slowly.
“I can gift this to any human, but there is one condition.” He came close and put his face next to hers. “They have to give me their permission.” His breath was cold against her cheek. “They have to say yes to me. Otherwise, they simply die. Don’t ask me why it works this way, but that has always been the way.
“What I want from you is to join me and my growing forces.” He began to pace again. “You have a unique strength inside of you. I can feel it. If I have you at my side, then I truly believe nothing can stop us.”
Leisha scoffed. “I would rather die the most painful death than join you. You have darkness and evil in you, and I will not be a part of it.”
He turned to look at her, his cold, black eyes penetrating hers. Leisha tried not to squirm. “I thought you might say something like that.” He smiled again. “This is where the leverage comes in.”
Leisha felt an icy sense of foreboding work its way up her spine, filling her body. Blood drained from her face as she realized his intentions.
A torch lit in the distance and she could see there was some kind of lower level in the cave. Adanne was down there, her small wrists bound above her head as she looked at Leisha, terror in her eyes.
Ptah nodded his head at something below in the shadows. Suddenly, a whip flashed, and Leisha screamed out with her daughter. There was blood coming down the front of Adanne’s shirt.
“I like to whip the stomach and work toward the back,” Ptah’s ugly voice said.
She closed her eyes, but the horrid image of little Adanne bleeding seared into her brain. “You win, Ptah,” she murmured through stiff lips. “If you let her go and promise me she will
not be harmed anymore, I will become one of your monsters.”
“You gave in rather easily, did you not? I knew your daughter was going to be instrumental in getting to you, but I was expecting a lot more torture to be involved first.” He released a breath of disgust. “Oh well, I will get what I want, and so will you. No more harm will come to her. Now, we shall commence the mixing of our blood to become one in body and soul.”
Shaking, Leisha couldn’t believe what was transpiring before her. “You have brought me to hell itself,” she murmured.
Ptah pulled her out of her thoughts by grabbing hard on her hair. Leisha’s neck was exposed and he didn’t waste any time biting into her flesh, upon which she cried out her desolation to the gods she once believed were her protectors.
“You taste exquisite!” Ptah exclaimed, his tone filled with surprise and lust. As he threw her to the ground, she looked up to see him slicing his own wrist with his fingernail. He put his bleeding wrist in front of her mouth and ordered her to drink.
Leisha hesitated for a moment, but when she was reminded of her tortured daughter, she immediately put her mouth on his arm and drank.
Ptah’s blood was thick and vile. Leisha could feel it oozing down her throat and into her stomach. It felt heavy, and she thought she would pass out before she drank enough to transform.
Pulling her off his arm, Ptah studied her intently. She felt disgusted by what she’d just done, strangely violated without physical harm.
Then it came. A cold, burning sensation rapidly snaked through her body all the way from her toes to her scalp.
Leisha arched her back and screamed. It felt like acid was eating her from the inside out. She writhed around on the ground, trying to rub the odious sensations out of her body, but it only made the pain worse. She stopped and tried to think past the agony, but it was no use. She had to make it stop. Suddenly, she realized she was on the edge of one end of the cave, and that she could easily roll over it. The fall would kill her and make the pain go away.
Leisha summoned the strength to roll onto her side, but the pain had drained every bit of her energy. She took a few ragged breaths and tried again. It worked. She just needed to roll over once more, and she would be over the edge.
A noise came through the throbbing; Leisha couldn’t tell exactly what it was. The only thing she knew in that moment was that she was experiencing more affliction than anyone could ever endure. It should have killed her by now. But it didn’t, and she was still beyond any measure of pain one could fathom.
Leisha tried valiantly once again to roll over—just once more, and everything would end—but couldn’t. Her mind got fuzzy, she couldn’t think anymore. As the blessed darkness of unconsciousness descended on her, she gradually gave into it . . .
Leisha sat quietly. Her voice remained neutral while she recounted her story. Reliving it had apparently made her close in on herself.
Samantha shuddered several times throughout the story. She almost cried at the thought of Leisha having to watch her baby being tortured.
Leisha cleared her throat and continued, “When I woke, I was a vampire. Everything felt and looked very different. I could hear every little thing so clearly, like the water dripping in the cave. It sounded as if it were just next to my ears. I could see every crack, every speck of dirt. It was startling. It takes a while to get used to it. Some vampires can’t handle it, can’t learn to distinguish and ignore some of the sights and sounds.”
Samantha was getting impatient. While hearing what it was like to be a vampire was interesting, she had to know what had happened to Adanne.
Leisha glanced at Samantha and read her face. “My baby girl was all right, considering what she had been through. I was unconscious the entire day, during which they fed her while waiting for me to wake. I always suspected that while they didn’t touch her, they might have played with her mind.” Leisha frowned; a haunted look conquering her eyes. “But I’ll never know, because I wasn’t able to talk to her about it.”
“You mean you never saw her again?”
“I thought Ptah was granting me mercy when he said I could take Adanne home that night to say goodbye to her and my father. I carried her the whole way back—my daughter crying in her sleep in my arms. When I arrived at my father’s hut in the middle of the night, I laid Adanne in my old cot. I went to my father to explain to him everything that had transpired, when it hit me.”
“What hit you?” Samantha prompted.
Leisha’s tone turned grave. “The Hunger.” She exhaled slowly before continuing, “When someone first becomes a vampire, he needs to drink blood right away. Ptah, of course, knew this, but didn’t warn me at all. If a vampire doesn’t eat when he needs to . . . The Hunger . . . takes over . . . It’s the most primal instinct that exists. You act like an animal. You don’t think, and you don’t see anything as it is. It’s like your brain just shuts down and The Hunger takes over your body. All you can see is what’s food, and what isn’t.”
Samantha wasn’t sure she wanted to hear any more, but stayed calm and tried to keep the look of abhorrence off her face. “So, you . . . ate your father and daughter?” she whispered hoarsely.
“Almost,” Leisha answered. “I was a mere inches away from my father’s neck, ready to bite into him, when my daughter’s horrified shriek temporarily brought me to my senses. She was extremely scared of me . . . terrorized.” Leisha broke off, as if unable to face the memory of her daughter.
Samantha wanted to reach out to Leisha, to give her some sort of comfort, but she stopped herself. Leisha had more to tell, and would probably not welcome the comfort.
Leisha cleared her throat again. “I immediately apologized to my father and told Adanne I loved her, and then I ran as fast as I could. I wasn’t paying any attention to where I was going. I just wanted to run as far as my legs would carry me. Far away from everything. When I finally collapsed to my knees, a man—I guess, you could call him a good Samaritan—saw me and tried to help.
“At that point, The Hunger had paralyzed my sense of discernment. That poor man died a most horrible death at my hands.”
Tears rolled down Samantha’s cheeks. “Oh, Leisha, that’s so terrible.”
Leisha’s smile was twisted with irony. “You think that’s bad? Tafari was on that same path, and had come to see me sitting in a puddle of gore that used to be a man.”
Samantha couldn’t stand how depressingly wretched this story was—she could no longer tell if she was shedding tears of remorse or fear. “Were you able to tell Tafari what happened?”
Leisha shook her head, and turned to gaze out the window.
Samantha quietly got up and went to the bathroom. For a few minutes she wept on behalf of Leisha before splashing water over her face. Vampires do exist, and Leisha was one of them. Samantha couldn’t believe she was able to accept it so easily. The mild shock had perhaps numbed her to this great revelation.
No, she thought. The existence of vampires was the easy part to accept. The hard part was going with Leisha and Nik to meet this cruel demon-man named Ptah—she would be face to face with Ptah in less than a day. Samantha wondered if she would live through this experience.
CHAPTER 9
Leisha stared out the window at nothing, working to keep her tears at bay. Talking about her past caused her emotional wounds to feel fresh and vulnerable, like a newborn baby exposed to the elements. She was surprised at herself for having shared so much with Samantha. She had only planned on telling her the bare minimum, but the words just came out of their own volition.
She sucked in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before slowly letting it out. As she exhaled, she felt her shoulders release the tension they were holding. While divulging her story was definitely painful, it was also a relief to finally tell someone everything that had happened. Before today, she’d kept her story to herself, but now she found herself sharing the deepest parts of her life with a young girl she hardly knew.
What w
as it about Samantha that made her feel comfortable enough to open up so much about her past? She had started to tell the girl about vampires out of necessity, since they would soon surround Samantha, but there was something more to it. Leisha felt touched that this young girl would risk her life just to save her. It was obvious to her Samantha would still have risked everything had she known Leisha was a vampire.
Coming out of the bathroom, Samantha sat next to Leisha again. She could see the questions swirling through the girl’s mind, so, Leisha just waited until she was ready to voice them. She didn’t have to wait long.
“Why didn’t you try to find Tafari and tell him what happened?” Samantha started. “I’m sure he would have forgiven you if he had known.”
“I’ve wanted to do that so many times, but he wouldn’t have believed it. It’s easy for you to accept me as I am, because you didn’t see what I did to that poor man. It may have been over two thousand years ago, but Tafari will never forget what he saw—that image of me stooping over the remains of an innocent man.” She added, “Plus, the immortals believe that once we become vampires, our souls leave our bodies—that we are no longer the humans we used to be.”
Samantha nodded. “I remember hearing that in the movies they’ve made about vampires. So, you’re saying that it’s not true?”
“As far as I can tell, I still have a soul. I am still the same person I was when I was human . . . well, maybe a little more on the cynical side of things, but you understand what I mean.”
“Whatever happened to your daughter?”
Leisha’s throat tightened at the mention of Adanne. She still remembered her guilt the day her daughter saw her as a monster. “She lived in the village with my father. I believe Tafari visited her often, but I don’t really know. The last time I saw her, she was fifteen.”
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