The book of Tasha. Primary author: Vamp.
I won't bore you with the whole "get to know the group" story, because it never happened. No one in the group made any real effort to get to know me; to be fair I came in at a bad time. But as days turned into months, still no one cared enough to try and get close.
Let me tell you of our first adventure together - the one that would change my "life." (Living - that is vampire humor for forever and I DO mean forever). The group was heading off to search for a missing member, a young woman named Kailee. It seems she was taken by a vampire named Duke William of Warwick. The group was hell bent on getting her back, whatever the cost. So off we went to the shadow lands, a place of great evil. Once there, we hatched a plan.
In retrospect, we were fools - we had no clue as to a vampire's powers. I volunteered to ride into Warwick to gather information on the city to devise a plan to rescue Kailee. I was to accompany Gunner, a knight. That's a joke. You will understand why later. We rode towards the town when somthing came over us, a feeling of sorts. Then we were stopped by the town guard. After some questioning, we believed that we had convinced them that Gunner was a mercenary and I was his slave. We were then allowed to enter the town.
We went to a pub where I worked for an hour as a serving wench for my owner's (Gunnar) room and board. We spent time listening for any clues as to Kailee's wherabouts. Then, HE entered - Duke William - flanked by his five wives. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen. He introduced himself and then proceeded to inform Gunnar that the young woman, Kailee, wished to speak to Lericanin. Gunnar was permitted to leave. I was requested to remained behind. I felt almost as if I did not have a choice.
I was frightened at first but the feelling soon passed. I found myself completely charmed by William. He was intelligent, witty, and well-spoken. His wives made me feel as though I was a part of their family. I was informed after a time that I could leave. William did tell me I could stay if I wished. I almost accepted his offer. I truly wanted to know more. William and his wives fit none of the images of vampires as I was taught by the church. ( I was not a vampire, yet.) Knowing what I know now, I wish I had stayed. I informed him of my obligation to the group. He stated he understood, but gave me a open invitation to return any time I wished.
I forgot to mention the real strange part of this whole story. During the trip to Warwick I learned that Kailee, the kidnap victim, is a daywalker, a half-vampire, half-human. She is also the daughter of Duke William. This is important to keep in mind as my story unfolds.
While I was with William, the rest of the group failed to "save" Kailee. I asked what had happened. Lericanin said that Kailee wished to stay and get to know her father and mother, a beautiful woman by the name of Bianka. She was one of William's wives (number five). I asked if Lericanin believed her. He and the group were under the impression that Kailee was not responsible for her actions. They thought that William had her under his control. They could not fathom how William could love her as a daughter.
The mood of the group was less than pleasant. Gunnar would not stop complaining about Kailee and how he was going to save her, no matter what, blah blah blah. It appeared to me that the group was not as close as I was led to believe. There was constant tension.
I am going to skip the part of the story where we helped saved the dwarves' butts because I developed a real dislike for the smelly, sawed-off obnoxious little drunks - enough said on that subject. I am going to pick up where we (the group) said gooodbye to Lericanin and Sceva. Sceva is a knight of Eliminor, the only level-headed one of the group and a gentleman. Although without much competition, that is not too hard. They were going to destroy a statue that had the magic power to answer one question every seven days. Mighty and wise in his own mind, Lericanin felt it was too powerful for any one to posess. What a arrogant ass he was and well, depending when this is being read, may still be, although with the list of his enemies growing, I doubt it very seriously.
The rest of the group returned to Alister's home town of Carbost. We did not have to wait long for adventure to find us. More on that later.
Greetings. You are reading the journal of Tasha Durant. Contained in this journal is the story of my life, death and ongoing unlife. Yes, you read it right, my unlife, you see I am a vampire. I was not always a vampire, but now that I am, I would not change a thing.
Let me begin from back before I was turned. I was the daughter of a noble, Sir Elron Durant, the youngest man ever knighted. My father worked his way up the ranks of the army. During that time, he met my mother, Lady Mary Summer, daughter of Sir Daniel Summer. They were allowed to marry after my father made lieutenant. I was born 13 months later. My childhood was great. I hung out around the army camps learning everthing I could. I wanted to be a soldier; in truth, I wanted to be a Templar Knight of Arhus.
I guess I should explain who Arhus is, since I do not know how much time has passed since I wrote this. When you're a vampire time is not a big issue. Arhus is, or was, the god of war and justice, the god warriors pray to. There are, or were, other gods. I'll get to them later. Arhus, however was my god. Reading that makes me laugh, yes vampires laugh. We also cry, feel pain & loss and, most important, love! I know, you're thinking "No way! I have been taught that vampires are bad. They suck babies dry, hang out at graveyards, etc." Keep reading. You are in for a real eye opener. At least I hope whoever you are, you have an open mind.
I am rambling, sorry, I do that. Back to the story. Arhus, god of war - he had his elite knights, the Templar, hard charging-ass kicking-do gooders. That is what I wanted to be. Why you ask, would a beautiful young woman want to be a Templar? Glad you asked. I wanted to make my dad proud of me. You see, I was an only child and female. This was not good for dad. He wanted an heir. Don't get me wrong, he loved me, but I was a girl. I tried hard to be a guy. I learned to sword fight and shoot a bow (crossbow), I learned the long bow later. I could out-ride most guys and out-drink them as well. But try as I might, I got into trouble a lot. Most of the time it was not my fault! My mother, gods love her, did her best to get me to act my sex. But when I did, things happened, like decking young male nobles for grabing my ass without my consent. Or those times when Mom made me go to tea parties with the other nobles' daughters. I would end up telling them off for mistreating their servants. I hope servitude is something that has changed, or will. I would always say, when asked why I did the above, "You raised me to judge people by their actions, not their station in life." I am sure that I ticked Mom and Dad off saying that, but it was the truth.
So where was I? Templars, right, the biggest problem to this dream was, you guessed it, my gender. You had to be a male. But I was not going to let a little thing (like not having a little thing) stand in my way. I was going to be a Templar, or ...well, I did not have a back-up plan. So I trained. I also discovered that being a good-looking young woman could be fun. I know what you're thinking, how do I know you were good looking. Well, picture a six foot, hazel eyed girl, with brown waist-length hair, and there you go. And for the guys reading this, I also have a nice rack, or so I was told! As I said, being a girl could be fun. I learned this with Lt. Hank Wilcocks. We were lovers for two years, more like rabbits if you get my drift. Sex was fun, still is. YES, I said, "still." Misbelief - vampires don't have sex. We do, we just can't bear children. That is the only thing I wonder if I would have had...
Well, moving on. I turned 18 and attended my first Imperial ball. No, it was not given for my birthday; it was for the Kosomen delegation. What happened next was not my fault, really. Maggie, my best friend and hand-maid, was the daughter of a friend of my dad's who died; and dad took in his wife and daughter. Back to the story, every thing is going great. We are dancing, mingling, and then, out of nowhere, I feel a hand grab my ass. Well I turned and pow! Down he goes. Well I figure it will be okay; I would just say I was defending my honor, right? Wrong. I soon found out, to my horror, that the grabber was the nephew of one of the delegates from the Kosomen empire, and to make matters worse, the chief delegate. Well you can imagine the rest, not good. I, however, made it worse by calling the guy a lying ass when he denied his action. My dad never said a thing to me about it, he just looked at me - you know, the dad look. The next day, I announced that I was off to become a Templar! My dad gave me his permission but said, "Don't be too disappointed when they don't accept you." The way he said "disappointed" cut me deeper than any blade could have. I felt that was a reflection of his disappointment in me.
Well that is it for now, the suns are coming up and I do not tan like I used to. Next, off to the Academy.
Let's see, where did I leave off. My trip to the Academy of Arhus - I arrived with no incidents. I proceeded to inform the people present that I was there to be a Knight and if need be I would fight any or all for that right. Well, you guessed it, I was not made a knight, but Elias the Knight commander of Exmoor did allow me to stay a month; he said I had spunk. I attended class, trained a bit and learned more about Arhus. I soon realized being a Templar was not for me I learned you had to be celibate, boy did that throw cold water, no pun intented, on my plans. When the month was over Shadow and I were getting ready to leave...Shadow, I forgot to tell you about Shadow...she was my horse, trained just for me, I love her so much. Anyway, back to the story, Elias told me of a group that had passed through Exmoor a few months earlier. The group was made up of warriors loyal to Arhus and some to Elminoir the Goddess of nature. The best part was, they allowed women to ride with them. Elias gave me a letter of introdution and the blessing of Arhus and I was off, after penning a note to my parents telling them what I was going to do. Bet that went over well! I forgot to mention my dad's new job; he was elevated to Duke and made the Emperor's military advisor. I always forget to mention that. It took just over three months to catch up to the group, believe me they were not hard to track, they were just too far ahead of me. They did not stop anywhere for too long.Their leader (one Lericanin Averitt) was a huge bald guy with tattoos and a big-ass hammer. They had two dwarves and a mammoth wagon. I found myself in the city of Carbost. As I rode in, I saw a execution about to take place. I stopped, not to watch the act itself, but because the prisoner was a young girl. I noticed she was totally alone, no one there to support her. Only the guard, executioner and a priest of Arhus - it was over in a second. I bowed my head in prayer. I thought, how sad, such a young woman. I wondered what she did that was so wrong that she deserved to die by having her throat cut. As I rode on I inquiried about the group I sought. I learned that one of the group, Alister Stormfrost, lived in the city. A few minutes later, I found myself outside the Stormfrost residence. After introductions and an invitation from Mrs. Stormfrost (Alister's mother)to eat - she said I needed some meat on my bones, I was told that the group was in the city - my hunt was over. After thanking Alistair's parents and agreeing to return to dinner, I went to the Church of Arhus. I was actually nervous about the group's reputation; would they accept me? It was too late to turn back now. I entered the church. At once I felt a sense of sadness. I then heard voices engaged in almost a heated exchange. I looked to the sound. That's when I saw him - the one described as Lericanin Averitt. He was talking loudly with another male who, I would learn later, was Gunner. Just then a door opened behind them. I saw the supine body of a person on a table. I reconized the person as the young woman I had seen executed just hours before. I guess I must have been obviously staring too long because the next thing I was staring at was the massive chest of Lericanin. "Who are you?" he asked in an intimidating voice. I introduced myself and presented the letter from Elias. He read it and looked me up and down. I noticed that even though he was a huge man, he seemed sad at that moment; I almost wanted to give him a hug but decided, no.I later learned that the young woman was Avion, a member of the group. It would be some time before I learned the truth of of the events that brought an end to her young life and who was truly resposible for her death. Read on and I will tell you the real story of this warrior band and the true facts will surprise you.
The group was hired to find a magic key. This key was to a vault of all man's knowledge. The leader of the expedition, what was his name? Well no matter, it is not important.
The group traveled to many strange lands seeking the parts of this key. I never really trusted whats-his-name. Later, I would find out I was right! I never told the others of the group my thoughts. Why bother, they hardly noticed I was there anyway, with the exception of Jilad, a barbarian from north of the frontier. I mean barbarian in a nice way, I discovered in our talks he was a prince on a personal quest to become king of his people. I truly hope he did!
Anyway, back to the story. We traveled to the Macau empire. I think that is how you spell it; to tell the truth I never bothered to learn. It was a disgusting place. I see why Sir William of Ruse hates it as much as he does. They treat women worse than my empire does, if you can believe that.
We learned that the part of the key we were looking for was around the neck of a young girl, who had been sacrificed to a dragon - like I said, disgusting place. We traveled through the desert on these smelly animals called camels. They were tall and had humps, one, sometimes two, on their backs. They had to sit down to be mounted. Oh, and they also were nasty spitters!
When we took a break I went to the top of a sand dune to scout and I spotted what looked like a cave in the distance. We rode toward it and found a massive cave; think I got so much as a "good job"? No. After we entered, we soon came to a fork, one tunnel covered in cobwebs, the other clear. Note - to be a historian one must be as truthful as posible. So let it be known that back before I was turned I hated, okay, truth was, I was terrified of spiders. Dragons, no big deal, spiders I would lose it. I did in fact scream when this huge spider dropped on me. The group HAD to choose Sir Gunner, and, using all his tactical skill (HA,HA) picked the tunnel full of web. The rest of the group decided that we might do better with the clear, traveled one. It's not a wonder Gunner's entire force - 169 men, I believe - was wiped out from under him with his gift for tactics. Well, more on that later, but now back to the story.
Well it was not long before we found the dragon. No, truth be told, he found us in a unpleasant way. We were hit with dragon breath. Isannyera went down, as did some others. I was hurt but still on my feet so I was trying to get folks to safety. In the meantime, Gunner and Alister took on the dragon. Gunner tried to talk to it, reason with it, yes, you read it right, reason with a dragon! I heard him state, "This is all a big misunderstanding." While this was going on,Alister attacked from the inside because the dragon had sucked him down like a raw oyster.
We managed to fall back to the cave entrance. Then the dwarves, wise little folk,(that was meant to be sarcastic) collapsed the roof of the cave, closing the entrance. The next thing you know, the group is trying to dig their way back in to save lunch, I mean Alister. It was then that I knew, if he was to be saved, I knew of only one who could save him. So, I knelt as if to pray. But in fact, I was mentally contacting Duke William De Mirijan, the vampire we had met back in Warwick. I asked him to save Alister and in exchange I would return to visit him. In an instant, I found myself transported back to Warwick.
You may be asking, "Why did you do it?" Did I like, or secretly love, Alister - NO WAY! I did it for his parents and his brother. I could not bear the idea of his mother hearing her son was dragon poop. You may also be asking how I knew I could contact William. Well, I had already had contact with him in my dreams - very intimate contact. William was in my mind; he was also in Gunners, with plenty of room to spare!
I have to say I was surprised William had that much power. Father's rule - never under estimate your opponent. I had meant that I would visit William when I returned, but no matter, I am a woman of my word. I asked if he was going to make me a vampire. William replied, "Only if you want me to." He explained that one could only be turned willingly. He then informed me that Alister was alive and well. I was then introduced to Kailee, now known as Lisa. She is such a sweet girl; we became close friends, and still are. Kailee was my guide during the day, showing me the town and introducing me to the townfolk. You see, most were refuges from wars or evil rulers; they came to Warwick to seek freedom, to raise families and to live life as they wished to. At night William and his wives would put on plays for the whole town. After a month of being there I had fallen in love with the town and its people and most of all with William! "William," I said, "I wish to live here with you forever, I love you." He took me in his arms, kissed me, and asked, "Are you sure?" I replied, "I have never been so sure about anything as I am about this." You see dear readers, for the first time in my life, I was loved for me, not who I was trying to be, not for others but for me. We shared interests in history and the theater. This was the man of my dreams. He told me to close my eyes; then, well, I can compare the experience of being turned to the first time I made love - a sharp, quick pain, then ecstasy, but this time the ecstasy was going to last forever.
When I awoke, Bianka, Kailee's mother, was standing next to me. She asked how I felt. I thought about it and realized I was hungry, no starving. Okay, don't get grossed out; I did feed and yes, it was on a person. But he was willing and I did not drain him, I only took what I needed. I have to say, it was hard for me to do it the first time. I did not want to hurt him. Bianka explined that the townsfolk did it for us as a sign of respect and friendship and thankfulness for our protection, not out of fear. The young man also reassured me it was okay. I can imagine what some of you are thinking! But let me ask you a question. That steak you eat or that lamb chop from the creature who gave it up, is it still around? No! It would make no sense for us to kill those who we need to live would it? Myth clear-up time, vampires do not go around making bunches of vampires! Why, you ask? Well, I am glad you did. You see if you turn someone, you become responsible for them and their actions. So if you turn them and they go bad you have got to deal with it. We do have a bad reputation because of a few bad bats, I meant apples, yes a little vamp humor.
William then took me to the theater and introduced me to the town as his wife. Well, after that it was great. I would sleep during the day, then at night I would play hide and seek with about two dozen of the town children I had made friends with. I would not use my abilities to make it fair. William and my sisters would put on plays. I even have begun to act a bit myself! Then we received word that my former group was headed back to Warwick to save Kailee. That will be the next installment. I think I will call it "The reunion."