8A/N: In case you haven't noticed, I changed my summary because I feel that this story not only centers around the romance between my vampire and my angel, it also shows the way of lives MY VAMPIRES generally live... At least... it shows the way how I think vampires should live... D
Each chapter is divided into two parts. the first part shows how vampires live: killing, turning, etc etc... and the second part will be about Ariel...
I'm not as good in writing mush compared to me writing gore and such... So please forgive me if the mush in this chapter sucks. xD
So without further ado, here's Masquerade of Innocence Part 2...
Vampires… We never really hunt. We never really feed. We only do so when needed to or when situation demands it. A fledgling would at the very least feed five times per year whilst an elder - like me - would only need to feed twice. Each meal would only cost… say… a human?
Think about it, if we were to hunt everyday, the human population would be wiped out immediately.
Vampires live in clans. We hunt in clans. We hunt as one.
Hunting, feeding, killing - whatever you like to call it - is a very sacred and anticipated event. We are beautiful creatures. Alluring, magnificent, and bewitching - we use it all to lure humans into our grasps. Weak humans are so easily conned and cheated by us. One by one, we bring them to our feeding grounds and once they realized that we're not human and they are our food, it's too late.
In chains, lips and tongue silenced by our powers, they have nowhere to go. They are prisoners. They are food.
I stood at the entrance of an isolated and dilapidating building and looked around me. The broken fences, wildly grown grasses, shattered glass windows and broken statues. There was not a single source of light; it was total darkness. Not even a sign of the glowing bright moon can be seen. The air was cold and dry; I could feel the hungry anticipation of my vampires and the explicit horror and madness of the humans. It was perfect.
I placed my gloved hand on the rusty doorknob and burst open the door. Dust was whipped up into the air and everyone held their breath. I turned around to face the vampires before me and said, "Tonight, we'll have a feast!"
No one made a sound, but red eyes glowed evilly in the dark. That was more than enough for me to know how impatient they were. "You know the rules. You know the game. Nevertheless, I shall repeat this for the sake of the new fledglings. Once you've entered, you cannot and will not leave this place. I have placed a barrier strong enough to block out even the most piercing scream from escaping this place. Remember, the moment the door is closed; you are in a different world. Unleash your hunger, unleash your pain, unleash your sadness, and unleash the devil inside of you for YOU ARE IN A DIFFERENT WORLD! Now come, my beloved brothers and sisters of the dark blood into a world where only pleasure awaits!"
I stepped aside and signaled them with a swing of my arm to enter. Quickly and silently with only a second to lose, the ruined garden that was just occupied with so many spawns of the devil, had become empty. Smiling to myself, I took a long stride into the building myself and closed the door.
The next thing I knew, humans were finally released from their chains and their voices were returned back to them.
Inhuman screams, blood, sweat and tears. Laughter, growls and the sound of whipping air. All of them sounded so good. I opened my mouth to taste the dusty air and I inhaled the smell of the metallic blood. I felt my whole body relaxing. I walked straight ahead to an empty old and tattered couch. Each vampire, although had already drowned themselves in ecstasy were careful enough to acknowledge my presence and made way for me.
I sat down on the chair and crossed my long legs at the knees. I rested my hands on the arm of the couch and continued looked into the darkness at the mad, insane, hunting scene before me. I was proud of myself, seeing as the way both my siblings and my children hunt with such ferociousness yet not a single blood dripped onto the floor. We hunt and we kill like beasts but the line that separate us from animals is though we hunt aggressively, we still managed to make things seem to grand and beautiful in a way that not even a single drop of blood is spilt onto the floor.
But that does not come by mere instincts. No, it is the way the elders train and teach them. That was why I was so proud of them. They're doing things so perfectly well.
"My Lord Marquis, are you not going to feed?" I looked to my right and saw one of my most loyal vampires - Xzavier. He was my brother, 80 years younger than I, made by the same blasted master.
"Xzavier. No, I'm alright. I'm not hungry and I would rather see all of you enjoy your meals. And you can stop with such formality. You're my brother and my most trusted vampire." I smiled up at him.
"That would only make you seem biased towards me and may give an unfavorable impression towards the rest, my Lord." He cocked his head to a side and licked away the drop of blood on the corner of his lips. "And that's not very much like you to skip such a big feast. There's enough for everyone."
Ah… yes. How very much unlike me. After awakening from my despair and guilt of being a vampire, I was the cruelest and strongest hunter of them all. I love to hunt, I love to feed. So what was the cause then, for my loss of appetite? I kept quiet for a moment and thought.
Oh yes. Her. The angel called Ariel. How long have I last seen her? Two years? Maybe three? I missed her so. I missed the way in which her eyes would look as if she was about to go into hysterical madness the next minute. The beautiful angelic glow around her seemed to be in so much contrast with the dark aura surrounding her. Or the way her soft lips would tremble sometimes.
I love the way she spoke. Full of sarcasm and if you can catch it, hatred, and it all just rolls out from her tongue along with her sweet, soothing and calming voice.
I want her. I want to turn her into a vampire but I daren't bear the consequences. In all the hundreds of years that I've lived, not once have I heard or seen any angels being turned into vampires and I don't plan to be the first one to carry out this experiment. Not only will Satan come looking for me on his own (although I think he would be jumping for joy) but even the big man up there would.
"My Lord Marquis?" Xzavier worried voice pulled me out from my thoughts. I blinked and looked up at him.
"I'm sorry Xzavier. Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine." I watched at Xzavier knelt down by my side and took my hands in his. He placed his warm red lips onto each my cold white hands.
"Please take care of yourself My Lord. If there's anything troubling you, you know you can depend on me." I couldn't help but smile at the worried sad look in his beautiful red eyes.
I took my hands away from his and cupped his face. I tilted his head upwards and brushed my lips over his then pecked him on his forehead. "Thank you, my brother. But I'm really alright. Besides, I've already fed twice and that's sufficient enough for me. Now go and continue your hunt. There're still plenty of humans left and the night's still young."
I leaned back on my chair and nodded as Xzavier bowed before me before blending into the crowd of feeding vampires, horrified humans and cold dead corpses.
At that point, for no particular reasons, my mind flashbacked to the time when I first rescued her. Unconsciously I licked my lips and when I realized that, I knew that it wasn't because I've lost my appetite. In fact, I haven't because right now, my throat feels try and the hunger in me is growing by the minute except, I don't want humans' blood. No, that's not what my body is lusting for.
I unbuttoned the high neck collar of my black shirt and grabbed my own neck, trying to control myself. Ever so slightly, I began to sweat as I bit my lips. My own blood seeped into my mouth and that calmed me only a little. I silently hoped that everyone was too caught up in their feeding to notice the unrest in me. Silently, I cursed my body as Ariel continued to evade my thoughts, making my body weaker and weaker - hungrier and hungrier.
That's right. I knew what my body was after and it's not just after the blood of any type of angels. It was after the blood of Ariel…
After the meal, when I was sure that the fire of judgment has finally devoured the corpses, bringing them to the afterlife, the sun was already rising. I cursed and pulled the collar of my coat up to cover more of my neck and face. The sun won't kill me, not since I've turned 600 years old and have been bestowed upon the powers of an elder by Satan himself (yes, I have met the devil face to face before). But I still hated the light, nonetheless, because I was and still am not used to it.
Really, I thought, what am I doing out in the light? My hunger had died when the feast had ended so I was back to normal once more. I find myself walking along the street, which led right to my apartment where Ariel was. I stopped in my tracks and stared at the ground.
I really shouldn't be doing this.
As I was about to turn around on my heels, a small flower shop caught my eyes. This flower shop was exceptionally unique and I couldn't pull my eyes away from it. It looked more like a gothic clothing line shop rather than a flower shop. The only thing that distinguishes it was the different kind of flowers placed outside the shop.
Curious, I walked towards it. It's not every day you'll get to see a gothic-looking flower shop. I placed my hand on the cold metal doorknob and opened it. I was greeted by the ringing of bells and the inside of the shop was no better than the outside. Only dim lights lighted up the whole room. Flowers were, of course, everything but in addition to it, were shelves lined up with beautiful human-looking dolls.
The dolls weren't like the usual porcelain ones with chubby baby faces and such. The dolls were lean and thin with large clear eyes. They looked like… adult dolls, if I was to put it simply - there were both female and male dolls.
I looked around and saw no one, even as I called out for someone. Feeling comfortable in the dark once more, I approached the dolls and caressed their smooth skin. My finger trailed of the of the doll's red lips then to his long silvery blonde hair that was tied up loosely at the end with an indigo colored ribbon. Upon further inspection, I found the doll to be rather familiar. His eyes were red but there were hints of emerald in the iris. I turned my head to my right and came eye to eye with my reflection on a mirror. I stared at myself, then at the doll.
I blinked and my lips parted slightly both in amusement and surprise. The doll looked exactly like me. I was too caught up with the doll that I did not notice anything until I heard a woman clearing a throat. It was then I notice the presence of… an angel.
I whirled around, my hand still holding the doll. I looked at her from behind the long bangs of my hair and my heart stopped. I could smell her sweet honey scent and bloody hell… I wanted her - body and soul.
Ariel started laughing. "I can't believe that for an elder, you could be so careless with your surroundings. I was standing there for 15 minutes. I would have thought you'd notice me immediately especially since I'm an angel! What are you doing being awake during the day? I thought vampires - even an elder who won't die from the sun - hate light?"
I placed the doll back on the shelf and closed my eyes. I questioned myself why did I not notice an angel's presence especially when their glow was so damn bright. When I opened my eyes to look at her again, I noticed that her glow was much dimmer as compared to the first time we met. "Your glow's a lot dimmer." I pointed out blatantly, ignoring her question.
Ariel cringed and sighed as I noticed sadness briefly passing through her face. "Well yeah. You don't expect me to keep that glow of mine glowing that brightly when I've been on this tainted world for three years."
"Why don't you go back to heaven then? I remembered telling you to do so when we first met." I found myself saying although I terribly wished that she would never go back to heaven.
She looked at me as if I've gone mad which I have, in a vampire sort of way. "I'd rather lose my glow and my pride as an angel than going back to that place." she answered with detest.
I raised my eyebrows at her. "So I guess the sadness in your eyes is just my imagination?"
Ariel subconsciously looked away from my eyes and leaned against the cash counter. "No. Sometimes I just feel… lost."
"So you do feel like going back to heaven. After all, you are an angel; you can't be apart from your native world for too long."
Ariel shook her head in deep thoughts. "Rather than missing God, missing my fellow archangels, I'm missing the beautiful pastures filled with flowers with jewels as petals and my twin brother."
I did not know what to say so I kept quiet. I turned around to face the dolls again. "So, you own this place?"
"Uh… yeah." she replied, confused at the sudden change of topic. "I specialize in selling as well as doing gothic flower arrangements and as you can see - dolls. Most of my customers are - obviously - Goths or people who like the gothic culture anyway."
"And you make these clay dolls?"
I could feel Ariel smiling proudly. "Yeah, they're my babies."
I picked up the doll that looks like me again and frowned. "Even till now, I really don't know what are you - an angel or a vampire?"
She laughed again and I could feel my stomach doing flip-flops. I licked my fangs with my teeth. She really had to stop laughing before I lose my control on my hunger and pounce on her.
"Honestly, I don't know either. I asked myself this too when I was making them."
I touched the soft hair of the doll's. "A vampire hidden behind the mask of an angel's…" I murmured to myself.
Ariel went to stand by my side and placed her hand behind her. "His name's Marquis. And yes, he's made in your image."
I frowned at her, more annoyed than shocked since I saw that coming. "How did you know my name and I don't like the idea of every vampire fanatics having me in their room. I prefer to remain anonymous."
Ariel pouted. "But Marquis here's selling like hot cakes. If I were to stop selling it, I'm losing half of my monthly income! This just shows how people love you. As for your name, found some old documents about you in your apartment."
"Right. Ariel… I was thinking…" before I could tell her that I wanted to spend a night at the apartment since I was quite tired, a young boy around the age of 19 came into the shop.
Ariel and I stared at him and he looked back at us nervously.
"I uh… I came to pick up my order of flowers…" he said.
While Ariel was asking him for details of the bouquet of flowers that he had ordered, I observed the young boy. He was thin and timid, with messy black hair covered with streaks of white. He knew I was staring at him and he daren't look at me.
I smiled. I liked this boy. I could sense fear in him as well as the dark desire to come out into the world with power and revenge. Although my desire for him was not as strong as my desire for Ariel's, I wanted him nonetheless. While Ariel went into the cold storage room to fetch the bouquet of flowers, I made my advancement.
The boy noticed my advancement towards him and I was sure he was clever enough to know that I had an unforgivable intention towards him. I walked to his side and looked straight ahead, my head held low so as to cover my face to add an elaborate effect on the hunter-prey atmosphere, which I love.
My cold hand touched his and I let out a deep rumble of laughter when his body jerked, stunned by how cold my body was compared to his warm skin. "Have you ever wondered whether vampires are real?" I whispered.
The boy's body tensed up. "I-I don't know."
"Don't you want to find out the truth then, boy?"
"I- uh…"
Before he could give me a reply, Ariel came out from the room and instantly caught on what was going on. I did not bother to turn around to look at her to know how furious and angry she was. An archangel will always be an archangel - protecting the worthless mortals.
I sighed. Silently, I slipped a piece of paper into his hands and then the doll. "Consider this a gift from me. If you ever want to find out the truth of vampires, meet me at the address that I've written down for you."
I turned around and walked towards Ariel giving her a dark smile before disappearing into the cold storage room to look at the flowers that are kept there.
A moment later, Ariel came screaming into the room, fury spread across her angelic face. "You did not just ask that young boy to look for you and be your new fledgling! How could you? He couldn't survive a turning! He's clearly physically too weak!"
I winced at the sharpness of her voice. Slightly irked, I cut her off saying something else before she could continue screaming, "I never knew you sold such black colored roses. They indeed do go well with the white ones." I picked up a few stems of white and black colored roses and held them together tightly until the thorns pierced my flesh sending my blood trickling down my wrist.
Her eyes were opened with a slight glazed look to it as the pupils of her eyes followed every drop of my blood falling onto the rose petals. Her lips were apart as if they had wanted to say something but her mind was absolutely blank and she was lost for words. Pleasing myself with the fact that I had finally entranced Ariel, I placed my injured hand over the roses and let my blood drip onto the petals. She really was easily enchanted for an angel. Maybe because I knew that she was already enchanted with us to begin with.
"Ariel," I spoke out her name softly and she looked up at me like an innocent young child. I, again, made no motion to look at her, my gaze still fixed onto the bloodied roses in my hand. "You're just like this bundle of roses - so amazingly classic and beautiful yet can be both dark and pure. But which are you exactly? When I rip open your chest, will I see the heart of an angel's or the heart of a vampire's?"
I paused and thought of the boy. "I'm going to taint you with my blood tonight, Ariel just like I've tainted these roses with my blood, except I'm going to do it indirectly. After tonight, you'll look at things differently again. You'll never look at me with the same eyes. Are you ready, my Ariel?"
Only now that I've ended talking did I look at her.
She held her fist to where her heart was as if protecting it from me. She took a step forward, closing the gap between us with trembling feet. I saw confusion in her eyes and her lips were quivering. Another step forward and then again another until we were only inches apart.
"You, Lord Marquis, Elder of one of the four vampire clans in the world, have no idea what was life like for me in heaven. You do not have a single idea about the real reason as to why I became an archangel. You have no idea what had become of me after I was assigned to the Vampire Hunting Division." Ariel took the roses away from my hands. When my skin was healed into perfect smoothness once more, she cupped my face in her warm hands and stood on her toes.
"Will you enlighten me then?" I ran my long fingers through her golden locks of hair.
Ariel laughed. "You, my vampire Marquis, have a heart of an angel."
I glared at her a glare that would send my vampires scampering away like cowardly dogs but she managed to build up a strong front. How cute. "I would rather you'd not say that about me, Ariel. I am clearly offended by your words."
"Well, I'm sorry but that's a fact. Three years ago, you saved me. By doing that, you've already tarnished your title as an Elder in a very horrible way. And then you gave me a place to stay, and have spared my life. Now here you are again, making no move to harm or kill me. How can I not say that you have the heart of an angel's?" Her breath was hot on my skin.
I wrapped my arm around her small delicate waist and she pressed her body against mine. I tilted her chin up and looked at her in the eyes. "So you're no longer mad at me?"
"I'm worried for the boy. He might die before he turns." she touched my lips with the tips of her fingers. At that moment, it took all my control to stop myself from taking her fingers into my mouth and nipped them.
"Do you doubt my skills?"
"Are your skills bad?" she asked, her voice dripping with mockery while her magnificent eyes sparkled with amusement and challenge.
My control snapped and I pushed her against the wall, trapping her body with mine. Ariel let out a small gasp before I managed to cover her supple lips with mine. My body was on fire but I quickly held back on my hunger and lust so as not to harm her. The harming would have to come later when I was sure she would be mine and the smallest trace of an angel's soul in her was gone.
I tasted her and it was even better than I had imagined. My hands skimmed across her milky skin. A frustrated groan escaped within my throat when Ariel ran her tongue across my fangs. If she kept this seductive act of hers up, I could guarantee we'd be finding out what happens if an angel were to be turned into a vampire very soon.
As if it was a warning sign, Satan's exotic malicious face appeared in my mind. Suddenly fearful and utterly stunned, I broke the kiss and took my hands off her. I turned around and wiped my lips, already hearing Satan's insane and satanic voice in my mind, "Marquis! Don't you dare defy me - your god!"
"Marquis?" Ariel called out my name, bewildered by the sudden abruptness of she feel lost without my touch? Was she already starting to miss my hot demanding lips on her, asking for more? I certainly would like to think so since I knew that I would not and could not be satisfied with just that.
Quickly gathering up my scattered composure, I turned my head and smiled. "We should do that often."
Ariel's cheeks flushed bright red. I laughed. "And as for the question about my skills," I continued. "If you're so interested, why don't you watch it? I'm sure you're dying to witness a turning first hand, my dark angel."
Ariel carefully picked up the roses that I had tainted just a moment before and sniffed it. "Maybe I shall…"
I nodded my head. "Very well then. I told the boy to come at 2am in the morning to our apartment. For now, I'll need some rest. Do you mind if I go over to the apartment?"
Ariel carelessly shrugged. "You're the real owner of that place. It's up to you what you're going to do to it."
After that, neither of us spoke and hurriedly, I walked out from the flower shop and quickly entered into the apartment.
When I've finally slammed and locked the door shut, I slid down onto the floor. Again, I heard Satan's voice, "I'm losing my trust and patience towards you, Marquis… Remember that…"
I knew I was in deep shit with Satan being aware of my sins. But I never knew how fate had prepared a horrible and torturous future for both me and Ariel that was cause our world to go plummeting into the swirling void of a painful darkness…
A/N: Reviews please! Thank you! Constructive criticisms are welcomed!