Searching for the One

The town was a small, provincial one. People did not necessarily have to know every single other, but they greeted everyone as they walked by, those who knew each other liked to gossip about the lives of those they knew. And though they weren’t acquainted with every person, there was a main subject that was one of the favourites among gossipers, even those who did not know each other. For example, if two young girls had just met in the bakery, and as they waited in the queue, it was polite to make some small talk. And, besides the weather, of course, there was that subject about which they could talk about without being impolite. Everyone liked to talk about that, however they liked to make it seem a taboo. It made it all the more enticing. And the subject was precisely the great old mansion, two kilometres away from the small town, surrounded by ivy-covered walls and whose gardens were full of high ancient trees that covered the view of the ancient house. It was said the mansion had belonged to an illegitimate daughter of King Henry VIII’s, from one of his many mistresses, and because he liked the girl, he had offered the place to her when it was discovered whose daughter she was. Here she would have a beautiful grand place to live in, besides being the owner of a considerable fortune from her mother’s side. This young lady, named Isabelle, came to live in this house, with her mother, when the king got tired of his mistress, the child being only two years old, or so it was told. They lived in that house and were the richest from the place, which, at the time, was nothing more than a little village. Isabelle’s mother died and she married the son of an also rich but not noble man, for she was just a bastard and could not expect to get married to an important family. They had a daughter, whom they named Sewenna. And they were happy. Until kind Isabelle decided to shelter a group of gypsies. As the story told, the gypsies carried with them a pair of vampires whom they worshiped and protected. Now, these vampires, the girl more particularly, found the mansion a great place to establish themselves. Therefore, as the rumours told, she and her mate killed Isabelle and her husband and raised the at the time seven-year-old Sewenna, in pagan values and beliefs, adapting her to the existence of mythical beings. Then, as the girl turned fifteen, the gipsy vampiress turned her into one of them, and she became part of the clan which now lived there, sheltering the faithful gypsies each time they’d come to the village, much to the villagers- disapproval. Many times did the people try to appeal to the local and religious authorities to exorcise the house, but each time anyone took a step towards liberation from the «pest», that person would mysteriously die and messages would appear at the person’s side, written with blood, warning them not to do the deed again. Many times did the people try to use those messages and bodies as proof but these would disappear before the authorities could see them.

And so generations passed, the old house was just that, a part of the place, people got used to it and as the time went by, the rumours would be almost forgotten, only remembered by those who were oldest and who still loved the legends which characterized the place. Children would ask their grandparents to tell them the stories before going to sleep. And, of course, if there were any vampires there, they would not attack anybody in the vicinity, so that they would not be discovered. Many times did children and brave teenagers try to get into the house, but they never could. The doors were all solid as if they were new and nobody dared break in through the windows, so as not to break the glass. People in general liked that house, and they liked it intact, undisturbed. It was as if they knew that, if they tried anything funny, the house would fight them back of its own accord. Therefore, they would content themselves with playing and exploring the huge gardens around the mansion.





This was quite all right for the vampires who dwelt there. The rumours about the King’s mistress, though not true, lent the place a certain something which made it seem all the more beautiful which, of course, was a pretext for the people who lived in the town to want to preserve it and keep it as it was, undisturbed and untouched. Sewenna’s grandmother had only been the mistress of a noble man from somewhere in the seventeenth century, which wasn’t close, not that much, from the time when the King had ruled. The part about the gypsies was true, however. Ashena had been bitten by a Hungarian vampire who had died, leaving her alone and unprotected, and because she had been a gipsy, the gypsies had accepted to take her in and protect her in exchange for the protection she could, by her turn, give them. And they had stayed together, her and that gipsy clan, for many years, until she had found and turned Andrash, who had belonged to another gipsy clan. And together, some decades later, they had found the mansion and loved it immediately, and because it was a quiet place with few people, they had decided to stay, killing the adults and keeping the child, raising her to love them and to want to be like them, Ashena treating her like her own child, though they looked alike in age. Ashena had taught the girl to read, write and the arithmetic’s, to sew, knit and dance and sing. They were happy.

Andrash had bitten Melusine, when his beloved Ashena had decided they needed company. So Melusine had become a sort of sister to Sewenna, though they were different in almost every way. And then Melusine had found Thomas.

And that takes us back to where we were. The fact that Sewenna had lost the girl she had at the moment. Thomas had decided to guest a visiting vampire and both had taken the liberty to break into Sewenna’s chambers and rape the girl before killing her by drinking her blood till the last drop.

All of them had a mate. All, except for Sewenna. She knew she did not want a male mate, and girls who would accept or desire a feminine mate were very difficult to find.

Strangely enough, it was Melusine that alerted the single vampiress for a new possibility.

“Haven’t you heard, there’s a new family in town@, she said one evening, as they were preparing to fly away so that they could find a pray for the day, in a place far enough so that the case wouldn’t be traced back to here.

“Is there?”, wondered Sewenna, absent-mindedly, fastening a black velvet cloak at the neck.

“Yes! It seems it is a man with his step-daughter… I have heard her mother died and the social services entrusted the girl to him because there were no more family members… They’ve just moved!”

“That is a family, you say?”, the other girl scoffed. “They aren’t even related!”

“Well… anyway. I think the girl is a beauty! You really should go and spie a bit on her.”

“She may be… But she is from here, and being a beauty is not enough, as you very well know.”

Melusine smiled and approached her, placing one hand on each shoulder.

“You go see her.”, she murmured, and placed a kiss upon her cheek. “And I’m sorry about having been so cold to you the other day. Thomas really was a jerk.”

“That’s fine… It wasn’t your fault that he did that.”

“Ok lass, I’d better get going because I’m hungry!”, Melusine said merrily, starting to walk away.

“Take care…”, replied Sewenna, a smile wanting to crawl its way upon her lips. And she would go see the girl. She didn’t know why, but she really felt curious about her, or rather, about the fact that a girl had moved here with her stepfather. What a dysfunctional sort of arrangement… She didn’t know what stepfather would be so kind as to decide to take such a responsibility… Either he really liked the girl a lot or… Or there was something else involved.

“Whatever it is, if there is something, I’ll know…”, she muttered to herself, her decision taken, her thirst gone, at least for another night. “Ash!”

“Yes, sweetie!”, the gipsy girl replied from upstairs.

“I’m not going after all. There’s something I must do!”

“Alright sweetheart, be careful! Do you want me to get some blood for you?”

“If it’s no bother…”

The girl walked down the staircase smiling.

“It’s no bother at all, my child, you know you never are… Oh, and… Good luck!”