"Your face seemed clouded, tremulous
From the tears that rose beneath my lids,
So painful was my life: and is, my
Dearest moon; its tenor does not change."
To the Moon — Giacomo Leopardi

🩸

We are immortal. And yet like dried roses, we fragment at the merest of touches.

It does not take much to kill a vampire, no matter its age. While no mortal-born weapon can kill them, and no poison can slow them, their sustenance is also their ruin.

Serafina drained her old lover slowly, making sure her fangs breached the anatomy that caused the most pain. Temporarily paralyzed, he could not even struggle against her as she stole the life force from him. Truly, only other vampires were dangerous to themselves. They were the only ones strong enough to apprehend them, to drain them of all blood.

She smiled into his neck, attempting to appear lustful to the crowd around her. As it was not strange to feed from others at these gatherings, she knew she could get away with it. When he was fully drained, they would leave together to one of the rooms. There she would take his body through one of the windows and dispose of him in the water, so her scent washed from his body. Someone would blame his death on a council member, or someone who wished to take his place.

Her hands would be washed of any wrongdoing.

She relished in the sap-like concoction of him filling her mouth, her hands gripping more tightly to his body. She pulled away, licking around the perimeter of her blood-soaked lips. His brown eyes widened with horror, and he gurgled miserably. She offered him no reprieve.

The seductress leaned closer to his face. She wanted to see the reflection of herself in the glass pool of his empty eyes. "You said we must not hold back our desires to make others happy." He could do nothing but stare back at her. She lip curled in disgust. Hundreds of years, wasted, as he was bested by the fawn of this enclave, "You are right, my wise Augustus. Why should I hold back from getting what I want?" She brought his neck to her lips once more, speaking against the flesh, "Being selfish is fucking delicious."

She continued to feast on him, collecting back her heart with every gush. Until he found death between the very arms that used to caress him.

His body slumped against hers, and she forced herself to laugh as if he just whispered sweet nothings into her ear. She carefully glanced around with just her eyes, making sure no one else paid attention to them closely.

She was lucky, oh so lucky.

She might have gotten away with it.

If his head hadn't lulled strangely to the side as she started to drag him along. If his delicate little blonde had not been watching them, waiting to return into his arms.

The envious flaxen-haired vampire began to scream.

Serafina whirled on her, eyes blazing. The woman's eyes were bathed in merlot, drowning her cream satin mask as she began to cry. A banshee at a funeral. It confirmed they also had been fucking, or else it would have truly been an overreaction. Either way, it caught the attention of nearby dancers who heard the screeching over the loud orchestra.

She hauled Augustus's deceased body into one arm, grateful for once the man was not that tall. More work. Grinding her teeth which began to form into sharp peaks, she stalked closer to the vampire. The woman looked at her with confusion, red rivers flowing down her flawless skin. Seraphine shushed her, using her free hand to brush at her skin. The stranger trembled underneath her, champagne-filled into stupidity. Or maybe Augustus just liked all the women he preyed upon to be new.

"I never blame the woman, for little do they know of what men do." Seraphina sucked her tongue to the roof of her mouth before making a decision, "Close your eyes."

The stranger listened. She shouldn't have.

Seraphina delivered divine comfort, by slicing the young woman's throat with point-whittled nails.

The woman grabbed at her throat, too young to know that her immortal life was not yet over. Seraphina launched forward, catching her before she fell. Cursing as she now carried two bodies on her person. Fucking glorious. Now she had to get both of their bodies out of there without suspicion, and then actually kill the woman.

A begrudging waste of time.

Weaving back through the bodies, she spotted her escape. The hallway near the back entrance had rooms with windows at the street level. She kept moving, avoiding eye contact. She walked closer to the side of the musicians, so the strings would block out any unwanted noise.

Just a bit closer. She thought, grunting as a couple knocked into her. Wine spilled down her back. She ignored it, her immortal hard throbbing as she closed the distance. Little by little. Her body did not strain, as she had just fed. But every second she was in the brilliant candlelight and surrounded by hundreds of vampires, death could be scented.

"Halt!"

A shrill, antiquated voice called out, purging the room of its debauchery and spirit.

Fuck.

She recognized its sharp, female presence. It reigned down on her for hours, as she was interrogated for the suspicious deaths of her lovers. It welcomed her into the vampire enclave when she had first been turned and she registered within the underworld.

Octavia.

The Empress of their faction.

Chilled whispers spread across the room, and Serafina dared not move. Her spine calcified, holding both bodies like a white flag of surrender. She cannot be addressing me. Her mind ran over the possibilities. There are so many others in the room. She relaxed before reality sunk in once again. You are the only one carrying a lifeless council member and his soon-to-be perished mistress. Her eyes bore into the darkness that was her lifeline, and she took one step closer. It is not me. It is not me.

"Serafina Lucifero! You will stop at once." The empress hissed at her, slithering in her loathing.

Shit.

She could feel thousands of eyes twitching, finding her from their places across the room. As unsettling as vampires already were, the masks did not help to quell their eerie splendor. Jewels of brown, gold, amber, and red stared back at her through their disguises. No one moved to suspend her.

They did not have to. They already knew she was done for, as there was nowhere to run.

She turned on her heel, wincing as she dragged the heavy bodies with her, blood trailing from their feet. A mixture of red and deep plum. A circle formed naturally around her, so it was easy to see what had occurred from all perspectives within the room.

The empress was not impressed. Her tall, elegant body leaned against the railing. She wore a pillow-sleeve dress of the deepest red, threaded with sterling silver. Her flame-colored hair was pulled back sharply from her face, showing the severe lines of her bones and jaws. Only her eyes were soft, as they were downcast within her sockets. They were colored the blackest of night, a deep blue. Her alabaster skin was veined with faint lines of black, showing her age and prestige.

She was the only older vampire she feared. The woman was ancient, old enough to witness both the rise and fall of Rome.

She also happened to already despise Serafina. Not because of the trial. But because she lusted over her familiar, he had rejected her. Unheard of in this realm, where they were considered of a lower social caste and unable to deny those above them. Serafina had approved his rejection, which prevented Octavia from taking him to her bed. Otherwise, he would have been forced.

The ancient one had held it against her ever since. The string of dead lovers was just an excuse to finally persecute her with reason.

Barbaric. Entitled. Inhumane. Serafina hated the woman right back.

There was no point in playing dumb.

Serafina held her gaze and dropped both of the bodies. The room lit up in a roar. Beings crouched, getting into defensive stances. Some shielded the more sensitive of their kind from the horror that was Augustus, who had just started to molt into a sickly gray. Not that he was a gory sight. They were probably appalled that someone considered indestructible, and of supernatural nobility was now dead. The strange young woman fallen beside him was still passed out, though her cheeks were flushed rosy. A pity.

"She is still alive. Will that lighten my sentence?" Serafina offered in a bored tone, leaning on her hip.

She pulled off her black mask and threw it lazily onto forever-sleeping Augustus. The room quieted, while Octavia curled over the high balcony at her disrespect.

The empress looked at her with murderous intent, "You have committed a cardinal sin." Ironic. "You have killed one of the seven. You have broken all orders that we have maintained for five-hundred years." Tell me more. "You have acted above your station. You have ruined this masquerade with your savage insolence, and you have insulted me personally." That changes...absolutely nothing. "Augustus was my dearest friend. He was a leader, that kept us unified and protected for longer than you can even perceive in your short, insignificant existence."

"He was a good-for-nothing liar." Serafina batted her lashes and pouted. Holding up her hands in mock prayer as she addressed the leader of the enclave, "Lying is a sin, is it not?"

"You must wish for death, nouveau." It was a nickname given to those less than a hundred years old. It sounded derogatory, as Octavia snarled it through fang-contorted lips, "You are hereby exiled from the Enclave, Serafina Lucifero, nobody from nowhere. You are charged with the murder of Augustus Mezzasalma, fourth councilmen of night. This offense is punishable by execution, for breaking the Sanguine Laws. You will pay with your life."

No one ran to block the exits. People remained in a timid circle around her. Octavia waited for her sentence to settle in, to strike fear in the woman before her.

She waited for it to strike within her too, that there was not getting this. It never came. That cold, clamminess that she felt right before she pushed herself from her high window. She knew what it was like to cross the other side.

I do not fear death.

Serafina looked around, finding no true friends in the crowd. She recognized some faces. Aurora. Carlo. Francesca. But they were not close enough in relationship to her to risk their lives. Most stayed away due to the drama she brought to the enclave. They knew she would find trouble from which she could not evade one day.

She only had Cian, who she sent away for his safety.

The woman dropped to her knees, her thick skirts padding the fall. It was the only thing that made her heart flicker with feeling. She knew familiars could physically survive after their vampires died.

But what would Cian do? If he hovered over my body, and I no longer wakened to his eyes?

The thought made her panic, as Octavia began to descend the steps. In no rush to deliver her fatal blow. Her eyes did not trail along her dead lover.

Instead, she thought of limoncello. She felt the breeze, and salt tangle in her long web of hair. She thought of Cian, smiling reluctantly at a jest she made until he could bring himself to hide it from her again. She thought of the way her mother's embrace was summer. A warmth, and an end.

Octavia reached the last step, the crowd parting for her without compulsion. Her eyes never left the younger vampire, disgust and a million other shards of emotion biting through the thin cover of mourning. Serafina saw the smirk on her regal lips and wondered if anyone else knew this was revenge for something else entirely.

The ancient woman drew her long limb to the side like a weapon, flashing her nails that were capped with silver blades. Too eloquent to use her fangs to kill. Her jaw widened as she growled, nearing Serafina at a quicker pace.

Hail Mary,

Full of grace-

She did not care if it was foolish to pray before her death. If she was her time, she would leave a human begging for mercy.

Octavia stood before her, a mixture of wine and vengeance. She bent, and Serafina looked to the side, not wanting her to be the last face she saw before she met her end. Instead, she thought of eyes of the greenest blue, where the sea met the sky.

A capped finger trailed underneath her jaw, forcing her to lift. Octavia dipped closer, "Pretty thing. A shame, isn't it? That you will not be around to stop me from fucking your familiar once you are buried below the ground and turned to dust. I will take him vigorously and thoroughly above your grave."

What she did next, was more foolish than all the murders combined. Serafina reeled back, just enough to spit into the Empress's face.

The woman bellowed, her body arching back, "I knew you were an animal from the moment I met you, you filthy disgrace! Beastly idiot, I will hang you by your feet from the chandelier! I will pick from flesh from your bones until you are nothing but a memory-"

The Empress trailed off, her eyes catching something from behind Serafina. The crowd once again began murmuring, but she refused to look away from the ancient and give her a chance to end her while she was not paying attention. For all she knew, it was a distraction.

But the ancient woman became stone, her body snapping upright. The rest of the vampiric order began yelling. Staccato yelps, where only a few words stuck out.

"Familiar!"

"It is forbidden."

"Diavolo!"

Serafina finally felt the fear that was supposed to come. Yet, it was not at the thought of her demise.

No. No, please God no.

Her prayers were left unanswered when she angled her body just enough. Enough to see the last remnants of smoke turn to man.

He peered down the edge of his nose at her on her knees, unfazed. Before settling on the body that lay between them.

Are you serious?

"Fuck Rin." Cian used his black leather boot to nudge at Augustus's face. He shook his head, "You made a mess, haven't you?" Pride edged his tease.

They often fought over who hated the elite more.

"Cian." His name came out in worship, a concoction of relief and trepidation. He could not be here, it was against their laws.

And yet there he was before her. So great, they would succumb together. She wanted to scream at him to leave. She wanted to beg him to stay.

But she knew that if their was any chance they could escape, it would be at his discretion.

He sent her a gesture, placing his thumb at his chin. Something they had created to communicate when they could not speak.

Trust me.

And she did.

Octavia took no time to ram herself into Serafina. The vampire expected the hit, but not the jarring pain that ricocheted through layers of ivory.

From Serafina's hunched defensive position she  could see that council guards were already attacking Cian, in a blur of metal weapons and gnawing jaws. The familiar held his own quite gracefully, somehow gliding despite well built muscle. She could never get tired of watching him pull out the two silver daggers at his hips, waving them once and then letting them sink into his palms.

He was poised, a viper ready to strike. The guards knew little what to expect as he parried every offensive move thrown at him. His expression barely passed neutrality as a guard swung a broad sword, just to have it swatted away like a paddle of wood. A guard with more archaic strategies flared out his claws, taking wide arching swipes from the side. Cian faced the other way, and somehow caught the man's wrist. They yelped as he crushed their bones within his hands, and brought their neck through the length of his upright blade. Impaling them.

Cian was pitiless. A god of battle in his own right. For only he could manage to make carnage beautiful.

There was a reason why they were weary of familiars. They were the only other beings that were powerful enough to kill vampires other than themselves. Each gifted with a sorcery when bonded with their vampire.

The ancient one growled above her, growing tired of her holding out. She pulled away from the younger woman, before striking again. Serafina's attention now remained solely on surviving the irascible woman.

Every hit against her body felt like the edge of a blade. Octavia showed every ounce of skill she gathered through her too many years on Earth. She had never felt strength quite like this used against her. All Serafina could do was defend, and shield herself with her suffering bones. The back of her arms felt like they would come unhinged. Marble uprooted from the floor as she willed herself to keep grounded. The older woman got in a particularly good hit, which smacked into Serafina's jaw.

She spit out blood from her mouth, causing a fountain of it to spray across the empress.

The woman smiled, her strange eyes glowing as she stared at Serafina with delight. Lifting a finger to her mouth, and tasting her blood.

"I will remember this taste when I feast upon your body."

Serafina stepped back, hating that this was a battle she would certainly lose.

"Cian!" She screamed, hoping he could hear her. That he was somehow close to her.

Octavia took a mocking step forward, "You will not escape me again."

"Now!" She heard her familiar yell, desperation rasping his tone.

She had no clue what the fuck it meant, but she took a larger step away from the empress. Thank God she did.

Cian stepped beside her, raising his hand and let a wall of hellfire erupt in a circle around them. Flames of black, deep purple, and even flecks of green marred the faces of those who wished for their death. Hellfire gave off no heat. But to touch it would mean instant incineration.

Serafina heard another sickening wail from Octavia on the other side. "There is no outrunning the enclave! We will find you. Mark your own graves, as you have shamed us all today."

Serafina could no longer listen, the roar of the flames too loud. Cian grabbed onto her wrist, and pulled her into his chest. There was a bright flash and a ringing in her ears as they voided into shadow.

They solidified in Serafina's apartment.

The cozy space felt unreal, as Serafina's entire body buzzed with disbelief. Her ears rung sharply with the sound of flames. Her limbs felt beaten and bruised despite her glorious kill.

I almost died again. A vampire over a thousand years old wants my head on a spike.

Only because of Cian, am I here. 

The man showed only a hint of his exhaustion, as his chest heaved slightly. He was illuminated by the soft blue of moonlight which entered from her parlor window.

He looked at her with an expression that told her nothing; everything.

"You were supposed to stay away." Serafina said softly. Both a statement and a question. Her frustration with him was clear in the break of her voice.

He merely tilted his head, his eyes narrowed. Like she couldn't believe she thought for a second he would not be there.

"I did not listen."

For once, she was glad he hadn't.

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(A/N: ah the party is really getting started now!

Tell me your thoughts about the chapter! Or maybe what tropes/plot lines you would like to see from me in this book? I will see if I can fit it into what I already have planned.

Serafina is already so mother <3 and Cian's timing is just impeccable. Also it is pronounced Key-an. It is a Welsh name. If you are into deciphering books, I spend a lot of time picking names and making them connect to the story. Love yall

I have big things planned for this book. As my previous readers know I am a huge fan of plot twists. And poetic smut. And well-developed slow-burn romance. For all that are new here; I am very passionate about writing and I hope to make it enjoyable for everyone.

So please stay tuned for what is to come!