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His words were meaningless. “I feel nothing. ” I slowly stood up, the heavy cloak of my hair falling down my back. I told no lie to Vlad. I truly felt nothing. Just deadness within. A strange, forlorn deadness.

“She still thinks she is mortal,” Elina scoffed.

Vlad drew near to me and gently lifted my face. “Do you feel the hunger?”

I pulled away from his grasp, gingerly stepping out of the coffin. I ignored his question, concentrating on the strange appearance of my body. I felt detached from my own flesh.

Cneajna took hold of my shoulder. “Glynis, what do you feel?”

“I told you. Nothing. ”

“It is not yet time. ” Vlad snorted contemptuously. He turned on his heel and swept out of the decaying chapel.

“What a weakling vampire,” Elina said with scorn before following her Master.

“It will come soon,” Ariana said with a smile.

I realized she was trying to console me. I did not know what they spoke of and did not care. I actually did not care about anything at all. I just felt so completely dead.

“I do not like this,” Cneajna said. She pensively studied my features. “The hunger should be consuming her. ”

“I thought you said that every vampire birth is different,” Ariana reminded her.

I did not pay much heed to the two vampire women conversing close to me. I absently wandered around the chapel studying my ghastly surroundings. My long red hair trailed down my back like a red robe. A sharp thought flashed through my numbed mind. I turned toward them.

“I will not drink blood,” I stated.

Cneajna cast a dark look toward me. “What did you say?”

“I will not drink blood. ” I felt quite defiant, and my voice reflected that energy. I looked away, my eyes glistening with sudden tears. Slowly, the numbness was dying. The deep pain of losing all that I had held dear was once more beginning to ache within my cold body. “I understand now what you have done to me. You have killed me and damned me to this place. But I will not drink the blood of others. You cannot make me and I will not. I would rather die. ”

Cneajna seemed slightly unnerved by my quickly shifting moods. “Of course you will feed. You are a vampire. It is our way. ”

“Not my way. I did not choose this life. I do not want it. ”

“Oh, but you will feed. The hunger will come, and you will feed. ”

“You cannot force me!” I shouted at her.

Cneajna drew herself up, haughtily regarding me. “I will not have to. The hunger will come and you will feed. ”

“No, I will not!” I snatched the lid off the coffin that had imprisoned me and held it over my head. “And I will not sleep in this coffin! I am not dead! Do you hear me! I am not dead!”

“You are a vampire. ”

With a shriek of rage at Cneajna’s words, I brought the coffin lid down. With furious blows, I reduced the ornate coffin to splinters in a matter of seconds.

Ariana cowered behind Cneajna, her eyes wide and frightened. “Is it the madness?”

“No, worse,” Cneajna answered.

“What is worse than madness?”

I whirled on them and stared at Cneajna, my chest heaving, my eyes wild.

Cneajna tilted her head as she gazed at me, slowly stroking Ariana’s hair. “One who fights the hunger. ”

I hissed at them and fled.