Tira was weak but she managed to tell the story of Upir’s life. It had been passed down from generation to generation in their family. They made sure that the true story never got out, but that only their family should know the truth, just in case.
According to Tira, Upir was born to a poor Slavic family two thousand years ago. Tira’s family had not paid much attention to Upir’s background so she did not say much about it except that her family was very poor.
Upir scoffed.
“That’s the only thing they taught you about my family – that we were paupers?” She said bitterly.
Tira was at a loss, she had no idea that she was supposed to give an accurate account of a family that lived two thousand years before her.
“Let her continue,” Lehi interrupted, “she wasn’t even born then.”
Upir kept quiet and allowed Tira to continue.
No one really knew how Upir managed to rise to power, Tira continued, all they knew was that she became a vampire and a very powerful one at that.
Upir as a vampire was focused on one goal, to free vampires.
“To free vampires?” Lehi asked, confused.
“Being a vampire then was not as easy as it is now,” Upir replied, “there were no female vampires when I became one. I was the first female vampire to exist, and it was very difficult to cope. Vampires had only just begun to exist about two years before that time and we were not fully aware of what we were. Witches used us as slaves whenever they came across us and killed us off when they were done with us, our families were(and I can’t blame them) terrified of us and would hand us over to be killed or tortured. We were alone and afraid, we had no idea what we were. ”
“How did you become a vampire?” Lehi asked, “were you… were you bitten?”
Upir shook her head.
“Being bitten is not the only way to become a vampire,” she replied, “I… I committed suicide.”
“And?” Lehi asked, interested in the story.
“People who commit suicide are likely to become vampires because they can be corrupted by evil spirits.” Came Upir’s reply.
“And why did you kill yourself?” Lehi asked.
Upir sighed, she hated remembering her human life.
“It doesn’t matter.” She snapped, not exactly enthralled with the idea of talking about one of the darkest times of her life in the presence of a bunch of strangers.
“What matters is that I became a vampire,” Upir said again, “now Tira, continue your little story.”
In between gasps and coughs, Tira continued her story. In reality, it was more or less her story and not Upir’s. Most of the important facts had been watered down by time and intentional omissions on the part of Tira’s ancestors.
Upir became a strong vampire intent on freeing vampires from the degradation they were facing, Tira continued.
She went to serve a powerful witch and, it has been told to us, bit the witch therefore turning her into a vampire.
“How did you manage to do that?” Lehi asked, completely absorbed in the story.
“The witches and indeed everyone then thought vampires were insane and unable to think,” Upir replied, “in a way we were. We could not always get enough blood to feed on and we were always on the run. While I was serving the witch I discovered that I could survive on animal blood so I started feeding on that and I was able to maintain my sanity. I watched the witch closely, all her spells and habits. She was a young and powerful witch, but unfortunately she underestimated a bitter vampire.”
“So you bit her?” Lehi asked.
“I did,” Upir replied, “I thought it would kill her though, I miscalculated the effect of the bite. Anyway, the next day she woke up as a vampire, I can’t forget the look on her face,” Upir smiled wickedly, “she was so terrified, being a vampire then was like being a dog you know, and how I laughed at her!”
“She slept as a human and woke up as a vampire – imagine that!” Lehi laughed.
Tira moaned and closed her eyes. She had fainted.
“Mum!” Rose shouted and ran to her side.
Upir got up. She had not intended to kill Tira, well at least not yet.
“Her heart is still beating, ” Upir said with some measure of relief, “get off her, child, all that screaming is going to give her a worse headache than I’m sure she already has.”
“No!” Rose shouted, and glared at Upir, “you… you killed her you witch! What do you want from us?!”
“My legacy, child,” Upir said, “nothing else.”
“And you killed her!” Rose said, pointing to the dead child.
“Yes that was unfortunate.” Upir said drily.
“Leave us alone you animal!” Rose screamed again, tears pouring down her face. She cast a spell and sent a fan of flames towards Upir.
The flames came in contact with Upir and passed through her harmlessly.
“I’m an abyssal vampire, child.” Upir said. She rushed over to Rose and was about to bite her neck when Lehi ran to her and dragged Rose away from her.
Upir faced Lehi, her fangs bared.
“Ignore her Upir,” Lehi said, half-pleading, half- demanding.
Upir stood still for a moment, itching to rip Rose’s throat apart, then composed herself.
“Why?” She asked, hiding her fangs.
“She… well… she has been through so much already,” Lehi stuttered ,”it would be unfair for you to kill her now.”
“You’re right,” Upir said, “maybe later, when her mother can watch.”
Lehi’s eyes widened with horror, that was not what he had in mind. But not to worry, he thought, he would be able to protect Rose when Upir would want to carry out her threat.
“I would love to burn this house down, but I still have unfinished business with the half -dead granny there.” Upir said, “if I continue with her she might die and I don’t want that.”
Lehi looked at Rose who was wailing at his feet and the other children who had gone quiet, all they did was stare with eyes that did not really see. The fear had paralyzed them. Lehi thought that Rose was a strong lady to still wail at the top of her voice. Any other person would be half-dead with fright.
“We can’t just leave them like this.” Lehi said. What he actually meant was “we can’t just leave Rose like this.”
“I’ll cast a spell on this house,” Upir replied, “they won’t be able to go out, no matter how many wind spells or fire spells they use.”
“The children might die before we come back.” Lehi said, more for Rose’s sake than for his concern about the children.
“No, this idiot will feed them.” Upir replied, referring to Rose.
Lehi looked at Rose, she was still wailing. He could not leave her like that. He knelt down beside her and held her face in his hands. In return he received a stinging slap from her but he did not even flinch.
“Stay still,” he ordered, hypnotizing her.
Rose complied. Lehi tried to hypnotize her into forgetting all that had happened but he realized that it would not work. Rose’s emotions were too strong and the body of her mother and niece would remind her quite nicely. He resorted to another method.
Lehi looked into her eyes, his grey eyes glowed as did Rose’s. Her eyes glowed with the same color as Lehi’s. He mumbled something and closed his eyes, Rose’s eyes also closed.
“What are you doing?” Upir asked Lehi.
“I’m deadening her emotions,” Lehi replied, “she’ll feel the pain and hurt, but on a much lesser level.”
Rose’s eyes were still closed when Upir and Lehi left the house. When she finally opened them, the first thing she uttered was a name, it seemed like a sort of anchor to her.
“Lehi.” She breathed.