Adrian Blackwood's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Adrian Blackwood had been a vampire for six hours, and already the sky was turning gray. He crouched in a fountain's shadow at the edge of the town square. He had promised himself one thing since the fever took him: he would never drink from a person. Not tonight. Not ever. But that promise meant nothing if the sun found him here. He looked at his hands. In an hour they would burn to ash. He had tried the shops. Locked. He had tried the church door. Locked. A drunk had stumbled past the fountain, warm and slow, and Adrian's throat had clenched with a want so sharp it frightened him. He let the man pass. Then he pressed his back to the cold stone and made himself breathe air he no longer needed. The town offered no shelter. So Adrian ran from it. He fled past the last houses and into the trees. His new legs carried him faster than any horse. The ground blurred. The gray light chased him through the branches. Then he saw it rise from the hills ahead: a castle of black stone, its spires jagged against the paling sky. Orange light glowed in its narrow windows. Someone was awake inside. Adrian reached the iron gate as the first true light touched the hilltops. His skin began to sting. He hammered on the bars. "Please. The sun. Please." The gate swung inward on its own. He threw himself through and into the dark hall beyond. The doors boomed shut behind him. The stinging stopped. He lay on cold flagstones, safe, gasping out of habit. A voice came from the shadows above the stairs. Old. Amused. "You run from the sun like a rabbit runs from the hawk." A tall figure descended, robes trailing, eyes catching the torchlight red. "I am the lord of this house. And you are the newest of my kind. I felt you wake tonight. Every one of us does." Adrian pushed himself up. "I need somewhere to wait out the day. That's all." "Then you shall have it." The lord smiled, and his teeth showed. "I keep a chest below, carved of oak, deep enough to sleep in. No light reaches it. You will rest well." He tilted his head. "But you came here starving, and you did not feed on the way. I could smell it on you. The hunger, refused." "I won't take a life," Adrian said. "Not a human one." The lord's smile did not fade. It sharpened. "How noble. How young." He turned toward the stairs. "Sleep in my chest today, little rabbit. And when night falls, I will teach you what it truly costs to starve. You will learn my rules, or you will learn the sun." The daylight could not reach Adrian now. But he had traded a burning sky for a locked door, and the one who held the key was hungry too.