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The whispering voices seemed to flow about me, calling my name in hushed tones. I could feel the call to feed. I felt the great need to soothe my torment. To release myself to the pleasure of the feast.

I threw back my head, my hair falling about me like a great red curtain, and cried out. My eyes felt hot and burned with tears as my body trembled with the passion for blood.

I was losing myself to the hunger.

The music seduced my body. I felt myself twisting to the exotic drums as I closed my eyes and let it consume my will. The voices swirled about me, whispering in maddening voices of the feast below. The sweet smell of blood seemed to fill my every breath.

Throwing back my head and arms, my body rose slowly upwards. The air lifted me up, caressed me, and enticed me as it carried me from the chamber. Through half-closed eyes, I could see the torches brightly burning in the corridor. I released myself to the power, feeling languid and weightless, as I was carried by the air to the feast. My dress fluttered around me as I was pulled downward, past darkened doorways and crumbling walls.

The music was growing more passionate as I floated in dizzying swoops and turns to the feast that awaited me. My hands grazed the walls and floors as my body twisted through the castle. I licked my fangs in anticipation as the sweet smells from below enticed me.

The Brides’ voices reached me, their joyous laughter and singing echoing through the corridors. I opened my eyes slowly from my swoon as I passed through the doorway into the ancient banquet hall. Here the music was loud and crazed, the laughter harsh, and the smell of blood overpowering.

“And now you join us,” Vlad said, laughing.

I floated to the center of the room and slowly rotated there. Through the veil of my hair I could see the bodies surrounding me, impaled on long, thick stakes. Some of the travelers were already dead and others were in the midst of their tortured death throes. Blood flowed freely from their horrendous wounds, a lake of thick, fresh blood forming on the floor before Vlad’s throne.

Cneajna, Ariana and Elina were dancing about in a circle, their gowns flowing out about them. There were dipping their hands into the blood and licking it from their fingers or letting the dark, red blood drizzle into their open mouths. Elina laughed evilly as she thrust her hands into the gaping wound of a still living man. Cupping the fresh blood in her palms, she lifted them over her head and let the dark vampire wine dribble over her face.

I was quivering as my mind tried to cope with the horror and gore I saw around me. The desire to feed overwhelmed me. I pressed my hands against my eyes.

“You must feed,” Cneajna whispered in my ear.

I felt Cneajna pluck me from the air and cradle me in her arms as she would a child. Slowly, she knelt before Vlad in the pool of blood, drawing me down with her, soiling our dresses.

“You must feed,” she said firmly. “Or else the hunger will claim you and take you down into the madness. Then Vlad will kill you. ”

I slowly opened my eyes. I was quivering violently from the hunger. “I cannot be this. ”

Cneajna smiled at me, blood spilling from her lips. “But you are,” she said, and kissed me.

She released me from her grasp as I knelt in the blood, feeling it soaking into the folds of my dress. Vlad stood above me, blood staining his thick lips. He held a goblet in one hand. As I watched, he thrust it under the ragged wound of one of his victims and the blood filled it. Smiling, his fangs glistening, he held it out to me.

“You are my bride. Drink. ”

At his words, I sobbed hysterically. The hunger was consuming my very soul or whatever was left of it. I threw myself back against Cneajna’s body and she held me tightly, rocking me back and forth.

“I cannot. Please help me,” I whispered.

Cneajna cupped on long hand and dipped it into the river of blood where we knelt. “You must feed, my dear sweet Glynis. Drink for me. ” She held her hand to my lips.

The intoxicating fragrance filled my senses as I relented to the hunger and drank. Instantly, I felt the warmth spreading through me as the blood satiated the hunger. I drank all that was presented to me and licked it from my lips.

“More,” I sighed.

Cneajna laughed and dipped her hand down into the blood. Ariana knelt before us and she also dipped her hands into the blood. I drank from her hand then Cneajna’s until the desire became so strong, I stumbled forward on my knees, raising my hands out to Vlad.

He smugly regarded me. “You are one of us. ”

“Yes, my Master,” I whispered, embracing my fate.

Vlad smiled and slid the goblet into my hands. I feverishly swallowed all that was within.

The vampires gathered around me, my sisters supporting me as Vlad dipped the goblet over and over again. Finally, glutted, I fell into Vlad’s arms. His kiss was slow and passionate, his mouth tasting of blood and life. I relented to his seduction and closed my eyes, only tasting blood and power. Slowly, he lowered me into the blood and it flowed around me in dark, red waves. My sisters began to dance as Vlad rose to his feet.

I lay on the floor, feeling the blood within me spreading life throughout my body. The power was so tangible; I felt it coursing through my veins as it renewed my vampire heritage. The wounds Vlad had inflicted upon me faded away as my vision and hearing sharpened. My heart began to beat within my chest.

As the hunger receded into a memory, my conscience returned. The ecstasy of the feeding faded and, like a curtain rising, I fully realized what I had done. I had feasted on the innocents in the arms of my captor and tormentor, going against all I had sworn I would not do. I had become what Vlad had promised I would become: a monster that would feast on the innocents.