Snowfall

So I imagine by now you might be wondering about this trip down memory lane as we watch the last hours of night fall away, not exactly the normal pass time of a vampire. Well its like this. Keenan had retainers, more than the ones I dispatched at the time of his death, and these men he had made into a secret order that set about continuing the mad man\'s work. Iuris Divinus or God\'s Justice. They carried on just as strongly after the death of their founder. I do not know if they had hunted vampires before Keenan\'s death or if that change came later. I do know that they knew what we were and how to hunt us. Many vampires have been purged by this group and I became one of their favorite and most feared Vampires to hunt. No doubt they had a huge file about me down in a catacomb somewhere.

My first meeting with this group was somewhere in Rennaisance. England was becoming a wonderful place to be for the undead. There was peace and prosperity. The Queen enjoyed parties and plays. Shakespeare.. a genuis, I remember seeing the man in a local tavern and he reminded me of Father John and what he must have been like before becoming a priest. I spent some time speaking with William over a pint of ale and helped fund a few of his early plays. I was an anonomous backer, a mysterious patron of the arts. He was wise enough not to ask, but many playwrites and actors knew better than to pry into the personal affairs of others. Perhaps it came from living and working closely together or from seeing so much traveling and working with crowds. I do not know but I appreciated their attitude. Several times I traveled with groups of actors. It was a good arrangement. I was eccentric but paying the way, and actors tended to sleep some during the day to entertain at night.

Back to Iuris Divinus and our meeting. I was at a dinner party of a minor noble when I noticed a man of the cloth amongst the party members. I tend to pay attention to clergy out of habit and in doing so noticed this one seemed distracted through dinner. That wouldn\'t do much to rouse my suspicions by themselves but while I was speaking to a lovely young lady who seemed to have an interest in me I noticed the priest wandering away from the main party. Something in his manor suggested that he hoped not to be seen and I could smell fear on him. Pretending not to notice him, I watched him leave out of the side of my eyes and then excused myself from my fair companion.

Following after the priest I could hear him open a door around the hall. I stalked him silently down into a cellar, having years of hunting to prepare me. What I was not prepared for was the sight that awaited me at the bottom of the stairwell. Coming out into the main room I saw children, about a dozen children. The priest was headed to a door in the back of the room. I moved behind a crate to watch him, The children had noted both our entrances with reactions that ranged from mute fear to numbed apathy. He opened the door and let in four men. Each wearing order robes over a light armor. The robes were black lined with red. I pondered why I had never seen them before while I watched them walk through the room. They seemed to be searching the children for something and then in a far corner on a pallet, they found what they were looking for. I saw a small child with whitish hair, he was asleep and did not wake until one of the men pulled him up by the arm. This was not shaping up to be a rescue. The men were all but ignoring the other children and the rough treatment of the boy seemed to suggest they had other plans than to take him somewhere safe and give him a bowl of hot soup. I made a move forward.

\"Kill the abomination.\" The priest stated. \"Beware his devil\'s eyes.\"

Forgoing stealth at those words, I lept for the man holding the child. I drug him backwards and sank my teeth into his neck. Some things come by instinct.. I should have just snapped his neck and be done with it but the hunger was aroused by my anger at these clergymen. I dropped him and moved forward to take another, they began to back out of the room. I followed. They split up as soon as they were once again outside and I knew that I could not find them all. Whoever they were, they were well trained. Moreover they did not seem overly surprised to see a creature from myth in their midst. Certainly it seemed unexpected but their reaction was a great deal less than the one I was used to seeing. This did not make me comfortable but I was less concerned than I should have been. I should have known that a bunch of religious zealots would continue to hound me the rest of my unnatural life. Instead my concern was for the boy. I wondered if one or two of them might not double back while I was running around in the night chasing this one and go back for the kid. So I left them alive and went back to the cellar. The children were looking at the open door with apprehension and hope, like freedom might be a dream. I picked up the white haired boy, he was small, slender, malnurished and an albino. Looking around, I noticed some of the children also appeared to be underfed but some looked to be healthier than others. I noticed that the ones that seemed apathetic were the better fed. Interesting, so it would seem the noble who owned this place was not starving them but feeding them. Not many appeared to have bruises. Indeed they seemed to be well cared for. Slavery, it was the most obvious answer.