NEW -Vampyre ch4

Chapter 4
False Freedom

Man and vampyress stared at each other, questions brimming in both minds.
“What powers?” Kael questioned.

Lady Aletta knelt gracefully, “The ones owned only by the race you most despise; Vampyres, my dear.” she added.

“I still do not understand why it must be me, milady.”

“Aw. So polite,” Aletta stood again and turned to pace “because you lead the single strongest enemy against the vampyres besides the elves. But,“ She whipped to face him, her eyes filled with a prideful flame he had never seen in her, or any vampyre. “after a few decades of rebellion, we crushed their pathetic race into the dust they had risen from.” She let her fiery orbs burn into Kael until he felt as if he himself was admist their wrath.

He choked through his stupor. “How? They were so..advanced!”

Lady Aletta let a shrill laugh rise from her throat, “We’re not so easy to kill as you humans believe. You shall see exactly what I mean in a few days time.” The Lady pivoted to leave, floating away as if on a cloud of silk, “You are free to roam,” she called without turning, “so as long as you do not attempt to go outside.”

As soon as she was out of sight, Kael let out the breath he had not known he was holding. So powerful was her aura. He did not expect such ferocity in a species of such “lowly, solidutudal habits” to feel such passionate hate for their enemies, such as himself and any other human. It was unnerving.

He shivered as he got to his feet and went to the door. He was through with waiting in solitude and pondering over the behavior of his captors. He was ready to try to leave. He crept warily from his prison’s entrance, glancing either way, lest he encounter that creature from earlier or some realative of it.

It appeared that he was in a long hall lined with many other doors harboring secretes of their own, but he was not interested in those. Following the passage, he came to a banister overlooking a ballroom of sorts. Black and white tiled flooring contrasted the red draperies and hangings on the walls and ceilings, and, unlike the rest of the great house, there was not a sign of time’s passage here. Great, sweeping stairs, like the pair he had seen earlier, made a dramatic entrance at the front, while silvery chandeliers containing candles, this time of white wax and normal flame, bathed the hall in a soft light. One of the curtains was pulled open, letting in a shaft of moonlight from the thick crescent moon.

“Crescent!” Kael leaned over the banister to see the moon better, “It was merely the dark moon last time I saw it! Days must have passed, at the least.” he scanned through all his thoughts of his time in that room, but he could not remember falling asleep again after he had been in that dark room. He must have slept long before then, between the one time he had awoken on the floor, to the time he lay in the white down, or have been awake for a long while. That meant he had had a lot of time to change. More than he had thought.

A mirror. He needed a mirror. He circled round himself before heading for the stairs. He had often heard that these Great Houses were built with mirrors installed at the meeting point between the grand staircases so that guests could see the image of an approaching Lord and Lady from any and all angles.

He slid to a stop in the area where the adjoining staircases became one and gazed into the immense, lookinging glass and cried out with horror. His right eye had turned a crystalline color. Only elvish vampyres’ eyes turned color; humans that have been changed keep their eyes’ original colors.

“What in Hell?” he stammered, stepping back from the mirror in horror, only to feel air beneath his foot.

He cried out uselessly as he tumbled down the stairs, a loud thwack resonating as his head hit the marble floor. Kael sat up slowly rubbing the back of his head. It hurt like Hell. He got to his feet and stumbled back up the stairs to gaze in the mirror again. His reflection stared back at him with two different colored eyes again, but he still had no understanding of why.

Disturbing as this was for him, Kael had no time to sit and stare at himself in a looking glass. He whirled around and rushed down the stairs he had just taken his tumble upon and ran swiftly across the tiled floor. He glanced nervously about, the strange echoing of his footsteps on the tile making his nerves taunt. Everything seemed so humongous..so..overbearing. It was like he was being mocked by the reflections on the shining surface of the floor and oppressed by the thick air above him.

He stopped and pressed his back against the opposite wall as he reached it, searching for any watchful eyes. He found none, but had a feeling; a tiny, niggling feeling that he wasn’t quite on his own, setting him on edge. His hand slipped to the handle of the door beside him and pressed downward, hardly breathing as he felt it swing outward effortlessly and noiselessly. He slipped out and nearly ran into something. He looked up and found himself gazing into the face of his Lord Siamak.

Kael backed away from the Lord, afraid of the reaction he would receive after disobeying a direct order from the Lady. As they reemerged into the ballroom, the door slammed shut, lock clicking into place.

“I suppose,” Lord Siamak began, “that you have an excuse for attempting to go outside?”

“I-I...” Kael could think of no real reason except for the fact that he was intent on leaving.

“Even if you had gotten out of the garden and past the several other....creatures  guarding the perimeter besides the wall, I highly doubt that your precious humans would except you back the way you are.”

Kael’s fright disolved into a silent glare. The truth was, the vampyre was right. They probably would have killed him. He tightened his fists in defiance. “I don’t care,” he stated firmly.

Lord Siamak studied Kael closely. The man was emotionally driven, needing the proper motivation from hatred or grief or some other strong, spontaneous emotion to truly bring out his potentials. He would be difficult to train. The Lord frowned slightly.

Kael observed the frown with trepidation. “What are you frowning about?” he asked.

Instead of answering, Siamak stepped ‘round Kael and walked towards the stairs once more, “Milady requested that I tell you to meet her in the dining room for dinner.”

“But I...” he argued futily, “I just got released from my room!”

“And now you are requested to attend dinner. Unless you’d rather go hungry.” he added with a smirk.

Sighing loudly, the imprisoned vampyre followed Lord Siamak. Resisting was only going to make his stay more miserable. He would follow along until he could find his chance to escape.