A mere breath of a word escapes Cecilia's
lips--"undeath." As you become more fascinated, you feel yourself being drawn
torwards Cecilia. The vampire looks away from the girl-woman who rests in
her arms, and straight at you. You hear a voice suddenly in your mind.
Spirit,
join her. You may make her transition to My state less difficult, a sardonic
smile flashes fangs at you through the night,
though no less painful or
unfortunate. The drawing becomes more intense. For a moment you are blind,
and then you look at the world though Cecilia's eyes. The woman before you
smiles, and again fangs flash silver in the dim moonlight. She unsheathes
a small knife hidden in the sash which is tied around her waist. You feel
the shiver of fear through Cecilia's mind at the sight of the knife, and
her sudden pang of doubt about the one who she has named Stranger in her
mind. She looks at the knife for a moment, and you hear the mind-voice again.
Pure silver, forged in the ancient days when I walked as a mortal. Only such a thing may cut me.
Then she speaks aloud. "I know that your kind flinches from the drinking
of blood, but what flows though my veins is not exactly what you might consider
blood. rather, it is the Blood, the life force of all being, which flows through
the veins of all my kind. but unless it is given a vessel in human blood,
it will not sustain us." For a brief moment, a look of sorrow passes over
her face. "This you must drink of, to provide you with the un-life which
all my kind leads. for whil we are not dead, our hearts do not beat, or if
they do, only sluggishly. but in return for that, we are given- Gifts." on
the last word her voice takes on a crimson-gold tone, though why you give
it color you do not know. She slashes the knife across her wrist. "Drink!
Quickly, before there is no more time." Cecilia's body moves under her command,
swayed to this by the urgency in the vampire's voice. You taste the Blood
as it washes over Cecilia's tongue and down her throat. It is richer than
the headiest wine, and it burns with sorrow, joy, laughter, tears, love,
hate, and all those things which mortal human life is made of--those emotions
and sensations which gave life its meaning when you truly lived. As Cecilia
swallows the last drop of the Blood, you feels yourself pulling away from
her, as both you and she are wrapped in velvet darkness. An unknowable time
later, you awaken.