Candle light played across the naked body on the alter as well as the twelve vampires that encircled it.

"For too long, we have been in hiding!" The leader of the group stepped forward, the black hood of his ceremonial cloak engulfing his face in shadow. "Humans have hunted us. They have tortured us. They have killed us! And did we retaliate? No! No, we did not!" He paused, circling the alter, his long canine teeth catching the light.

"We followed the laws set down by our Clan leaders. The book of Vampire Laws," he spat the words as if they were too ugly to be pronounced. "They ordered us to hide. They ordered us to cower. To be less than we were meant to be!"

The anger in his voice produced a whimper from the gagged girl on the alter. The vampires in the circle looked on with glowing eyes as their leader turned to look down on her. 

"We are smarter than you! We are faster than you! We are stronger than you! Do you understand that, human?"

The scared eyes that watched him filled with tears.

"Look at her!" The leader taunted as he raised the girls arm, "See how she cowers?" From inside his cloak he produced a long dagger and cut a line down the white flesh of the girl who screamed soundlessly. Blood dribbled onto the stone alter, its scent filling the underground chamber.

The leader dipped his finger into the gathering pool of red, and brought it up to his lips. His eyes black, his teeth stained, he laughed.

"It is time for us to take our rightful place. It is time we showed these pitiful humans who their true masters are!"

Cloaks trailed the dirt floor as twelve hungry vampires moved forward to sink their teeth into the screaming flower girl.