In my darkest hours I remember her.
Even now, as I sit on this tainted throne, perched on the remnants of the once-proud pillars, my thoughts drift to her, like tattered foam on ebon waters. They are black thoughts, dire thoughts, thoughts that flutter through my consciousness like a throng of bats, leaving only sullen silence in their wake.
It has been many years, many centuries, since I awoke to her alluring voice. Since I beheld her pale, fragile visage, hovering over me like a feral moon, doting on me as the centuries wrought their gradual healing on a body broken and shattered.
Would I have survived without her ministrations? I do not know. How often did she deliver fresh blood to my parched lips, or ease the peaked flesh of my forehead with her delicate palm? How often did she linger over me, mind inundated with the terrible tales Vorador undoubtedly planted in her? Did she fancy me a monster then?
She did at the end, when I dealt the telling blow. I remember the sensation of my talons raking through her wearied flesh - remember the tinge of regret that tugged at my soul, like a lost and wanton child. I am a monster. I have never doubted, never regretted that fact. Pity she failed to perceive what I thought blatant.
Oh, we could have ruled, you and I. Mighty and terrible we would have been, conjoined, made one...we would have feasted on the blood of the Sarafan together, doting over their punctured necks, chuckling at their dying groans. I can see your grin, smeared with effluence, stained with ichor, fangs bright amid the feeble light. In that world you loved me. In that world you understood.
But perhaps such companionship was not meant for me. Could I have shared my power with you, preserved the vaunted status of your coveted Cabal? Or would I have crushed you, inevitably, finally, at some later date for daring to impede my ambitions? Crush you as I have crushed so many others?
...but I did not love those others. A pity, indeed a pity, that we shall never know the answers to these speculations. Kain rules now. Kain fears no man, no Vampire, no Hylden intruder. Kain fears naught.
Save the thoughts of you, my precious Umah. May the Twilight of death be merciful to you.
Even now, as I sit on this tainted throne, perched on the remnants of the once-proud pillars, my thoughts drift to her, like tattered foam on ebon waters. They are black thoughts, dire thoughts, thoughts that flutter through my consciousness like a throng of bats, leaving only sullen silence in their wake.
It has been many years, many centuries, since I awoke to her alluring voice. Since I beheld her pale, fragile visage, hovering over me like a feral moon, doting on me as the centuries wrought their gradual healing on a body broken and shattered.
Would I have survived without her ministrations? I do not know. How often did she deliver fresh blood to my parched lips, or ease the peaked flesh of my forehead with her delicate palm? How often did she linger over me, mind inundated with the terrible tales Vorador undoubtedly planted in her? Did she fancy me a monster then?
She did at the end, when I dealt the telling blow. I remember the sensation of my talons raking through her wearied flesh - remember the tinge of regret that tugged at my soul, like a lost and wanton child. I am a monster. I have never doubted, never regretted that fact. Pity she failed to perceive what I thought blatant.
Oh, we could have ruled, you and I. Mighty and terrible we would have been, conjoined, made one...we would have feasted on the blood of the Sarafan together, doting over their punctured necks, chuckling at their dying groans. I can see your grin, smeared with effluence, stained with ichor, fangs bright amid the feeble light. In that world you loved me. In that world you understood.
But perhaps such companionship was not meant for me. Could I have shared my power with you, preserved the vaunted status of your coveted Cabal? Or would I have crushed you, inevitably, finally, at some later date for daring to impede my ambitions? Crush you as I have crushed so many others?
...but I did not love those others. A pity, indeed a pity, that we shall never know the answers to these speculations. Kain rules now. Kain fears no man, no Vampire, no Hylden intruder. Kain fears naught.
Save the thoughts of you, my precious Umah. May the Twilight of death be merciful to you.