Vampire Heart

Chapter 1

Good day to you all. My name is Damian Halvard and I am a vampire. I have been one for many centuries and this is a story about various kinds of monsters.

Monsters should not love the humans they hunt. Monsters do not behave as humans. Monsters are never humans. Yet, I have spent most of my existence striving to be the exception. I recklessly allowed myself to feel what humans feel, to live among the living.

Away from the northern lands that forsake me, I travelled all over the world, eager to stifle the cry for blood within. I fought in foreign wars in service of foreign kingdoms, defending Christendom and my own sanity.

Of noble origins myself, I was forced to assume a lesser role. Instead of being served, I served. I was a king who had willingly stepped down from his throne because he did not have the courage to condemn his own people. After too many years, I tired of making war against the Saracens and returned to the Western civilisation.

Rome and Florence embraced me in their fine arts, their poisonous intrigues and blood feuds. Venice decided she preferred the monster in me rather than the human, so I indulged myself in old habits for quite a long while. But how heartless can a monster be, after all? I needed a purpose and it soon presented itself in the most unexpected manner.

Mid-1600s, alone once more, my travels led me up to the centre of the continent. The forests here were thick and full of life, so I spent some lonely years as a beast myself, hunting only animal blood. I took silent refuge in abandoned ruins at the borders of two small neighbouring states, Bohemia and Moravia.

One night, unseen and silent, I watched how a band of common thieves was making a big fuss of robbing a lonely traveller just like me. I stood and debated whether or not to intervene. The victim had been disarmed and was greatly outnumbered, yet he kept fighting. He was young, foolish and fearless, and the scene brought back my own past with sharp accuracy. I pondered for perhaps another moment, then ran and scattered the lot, thus saving young King Jaromir of Bohemia from ridicule. I offered him my hand and he took it. Jaromir would be the first man to put his trust in me without a second thought.

An unexpected friendship blossomed between the redeemed monster and the prey. I was welcomed at the Bohemian court, where quite soon I would be graced with the honourable command of the King's royal guards. After a few years of proving my devotion and loyalty to the crown, I became Jaromir's most trusted advisor, much to the local nobility's envy. And all this time, I had succeeded in keeping my nature secret, even from my friend. But he was aging and I was not. I could not fool him for long.

The night before his wedding, I told him. He received the news well, perhaps half-expecting it, his own better judgment coming to my aid. With one such as me by his side, Jaromir could declare himself invincible.

Thus, I was allowed to stay and had further occasions to demonstrate that my devotion was at the service of humanity and peace. Jaromir's friendship for me was strengthened, and I was happy to have found myself a home after so long.

More years passed, and calamity fell upon my friend when his wife Izabela died in childbirth. Jaromir was utterly devastated and fell into dark depression. I stood by his side and fought hard to bring him back to light.

The purity of the feeling he had nurtured for his wife was the catalyst, and after a few months, Jaromir finally found the strength to hold his baby daughter in his arms for the first time. The love was instantaneous and his rugged features lit up with new hope.

Despite all this, the bitterness he felt continued to grow and engulf him. I was often absent from court, having to serve at the northern and western borders with Austria. That was perhaps my first mistake, not being present when my friend had need of me.