The Vampire's Shadow

Chapter 2: The Tormented Vampire

The footsteps sounding around the dark hallways of the castle echoed into a large circular room. Silver moonlight shines across the room from the large circular skylight. A woman appeared from the shadowed hallway and stepped into the empty room. She wiped the fresh blood from her lips watching the shadow she cast on the floor.

" Alisha..." A sudden male voice whispered into the silence. The woman dug her long nails into the tight skirt of her dress. Her breath hitched as she watched her distinctly male shadow disconnect from her feet and float in front of her. " you have yet to find the blood we need..the blood I need... "

Allie fingered the necklace around her neck. It was one that all vampires wore to tell how much human blood they had drank. Certain classes of vampires needed blood more than others and the magical necklaces were as great a way as any to tell when a vampire needed blood.

Allie licked the blood from her fangs and continued to stare at the shadow.

" You must get me that blood. You must! I need it...! And I will make you drain as many humans as it takes to get it! " the shadow yelled. It suddenly recognized the hurt and tired look on Allie's face and so spoke quieter and with a hint of care in his voice. " if not for me..than for yourself...you're so thin. "

Allie shot the shadow a cold glare and started to walk into another darkened hallway. The shadow sighed and connected to her feet again as she disappeared deeper into the castle. She fingered the glowing necklace again as she passed through a door into a spacious room. A large black canopy bed was at the back of the room, almost resembling a coffin. A large ebony wood shelf was across from a massive window that overlooked the courtyard and caused sunlight to spill into the room when the sun was setting. Other than that the room was completely bare.

Allie stepped carefully around the moonlight pooling on the floor, careful not to let her shadow appear since he would be almost invisible in the darkness of her bedroom. She reached behind the bed and felt for the hidden knob on it. The minute she found it, she twisted it and a loud sound came from the wall. Stone dust began to crumble from a portion of the wall above the door she'd entered. Allie's red eyes began to glow as bright as the necklace she was wearing. And then she ran at the wall, her body changing into that of a black bat with large spread wings and thick fangs protruding from its mouth. She flew up into the hidden passage and once she was sufficiently covered by the darkness transformed back into the form of a woman.

Small windows provided the only light in the cramped passageway. Yet Allie continued walking until she reached another part of the castle. The wall opened for her and she jumped down into the room below.

The window in the room showed a gorgeous view of the plaza where at one time or another vampires had met in the moonlight with their friends and family for one reason or another. But now the plaza was little more than an empty stone square where vampires were afraid to walk.

After the BloodMage Hunts had sent the class to ruin everyone feared that their classes would be next and soon many of them grew afraid of venturing out outside even in sunlight.

Allie clenched her fists to keep calm, sending the thoughts of the once proud stone plaza and the blood that had stained it as the BloodMages were slaughtered away into the dark parts of her brain that wouldn't let her forget.

The rest of the room, like most of the castle, was bare, containing only two beautiful velvet sofas facing each other, a large wooden table in between the sofas, and a exquisitely carved wooden cabinet once filled with their glass plates, wine goblets and silverware was opposite the window. These days the cabinet was filled with her husband's old research papers stacked in neat piles.

The torches attached to the wall in ornate sconces provided a soft orange light that illuminated the walls and floor. Allie could feel her shadow leave her and she suppressed the feeling of emptiness that welled up inside her.

" You must get that blood! Alisha, I need it! " the shadow yelled, making Allie flinch. She sank into one of the sofas as she prepared to hear the shadow's speech for what seemed to her like the ten thousandth time.

" I'm trying. " She uttered a weak protest.

" Not hard enough! I need that blood! Once I'm returned to life I'll be able to kill and torture those humans who hunted our class and make sure that they can't do it again! "

Allie sprang up off the sofa and found her shadow floating by the window overlooking the plaza.

" Those people are long gone! That was over 365 years ago! "

" No! They're out there! They have to be! "

Allie rolled her eyes, hating the shadow of her husband more and more each time it deluded itself into believing that the people who had caused the destruction of the BloodMage class were still alive.

" They're not. You should understand that. "

" They are! If I can get their blessed blood...I could bring my body back to life! And then I could kill them for what they've done!! "

" Enough! They're not out there! And even if their blood passed to their descendants we have no way of knowing if it's still blessed or not! "

The shadow turned and floated towards her standing above her. Allie just glared.

" Their blood will be blessed and you will drain it and use its power to bring me back! Do you understand that?! "

Allie flinched, lying down on the sofa. A few tears pricked the corners of her eyes but she refused to show weakness in front of her ruthless shadow.

So she remained on the sofa attempting to hide the tears while her shadow continued to yell.