(A week later)

Isolla walked up and down in the inn, crying. Valenus stood up, politely to ask what was wrong. She turned to him with tears in her eyes as she whispered "I am free but at what cost?"

"What do you mean, My Lady?" he asked softly.

"The man who murdered my husband, they will kill him for his crime. Tell me, Valenus, did you do it?"

"I wish I had" he lied as he looked at her, right into her eyes.

She breathed a sigh of relief before hugging him softly, her soft hair on his cheek, brushing against it. He could not help but wonder what it was like, to love someone like her, someone pure and beautiful. She was like the soft spring rain only much more gentle. He held her there for a few moments but it felt like hours.

She was a beautiful woman with a good heart, a good soul but that was it, all she could be to him. Valenus could not allow anyone to get close to him, to see past the monster he so desperately tried to hide. The man he once was, he was gone, perhaps even long gone, all that was left was a mask the monster wore and fragments, pieces of his past. He had all his old memories, his old life despite how cruel it felt and how twisted it seemed. Looking back into the past, he saw nothing but resentment for those around him, those who had the things he did not have.

He used to resent the rich, the men and women sick in love, the happy smiles and great laughs over dinner with their children. He was not even married, had no family, none that were alive. He became a knight so his life had some kind of purpose again but that seemed to just break down, even as he rose through the ranks and became the man he became, a good man who was great with a sword; he could easily win fights and fight off foes but struggled to find someone to love.

As a vampire, that became harder, near impossible. Finding love was just going to be impossible for him, he was sick of being evil, of looking evil but he had no choice. He was cursed, damned for all time to feed off human blood. Animals did not sustain him, their blood barely worked for moments if at all, all because he needed human blood to sustain himself, to stop the vicious monster's pursuit, to stop it begging, pleading and clawing its way out of his body.

Even a week later he thirsted for blood, human blood was his sustenance, his food and drink. He could not live without drinking a little blood, feeding from the innocent or the guilty, justifying the murders of the guilty, failing to justify the murders of the innocent.

Where was he going to go? Was he going to keep running in every direction like a mouse that hides from a cat? Yes because he had to. If the king saw the thing he had become, he would tear his head off but not before torturing him for the cup. Silver, the substance that burnt him, the one thing that could kill him because of the betrayal, he betrayed God and therefore had to be punished, making him believe the cup he drank from was not the Holy Grail as he believed but instead it was another cup, one with a much more evil intent, The Cup of Judas, The Betrayer. Was it his blood in that cup? Was it that cup he drank from?

"Valenus, what is the matter?" Isolla asked softly as she caught him staring outside into the darkness, the window barely covered.

"I... I just keep... thinking, that is all" he replied softly, avoiding her eyes again.

"What is it?" she asked as she grabbed his hand.

He wanted to tell her, take her aside and spill his guts but he refused to allow himself to do it, he could not do it to her, be anything to her or be with her. He wanted to take her by the hand and promise her a good life, one with less money than her previous husband by plenty of love and no abuse but he could not promise that for even as his words and eyes were filled with love, the monster was full of evil, plotting and planning.

"I know you are hiding something from me" she complained.

"I hide nothing but what men and women hide, the secrets they never tell others" he replied cryptically.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked softly. Grabbing his arm, she whispered in his ear "we all have our demons"

"Some more than others, My Lady" he replied very softly.

"Back to that again? Valenus, I know you are hiding something. Please, when the time comes, when you need to tell someone, make that person me"

"I will if I can, Isolla but I do not want you to get hurt" he replied, wanting to blurt it all out, to tell her everything but he resisted, he fought back the urge to tell her but he just walked away, away from her out of fear, despair.

He had to feed, he could feel it burning, trembling and begging for blood. The monster that never sleeps had come out of hiding to find and kill. It was the monster who liked to kill, who perhaps enjoyed it. It was the thrill of it, the thrill of the hunt that drove him, that made him kill, not just the thirst. Even if there was a way to end the struggle for blood, even if someone was to offer it willingly, he did not feel that his hunger would be sated. His life had become a nightmare, he did not realise he was so cursed until it was too late for him.

To spare others, he hid the cup and to keep humanity the way it was, he promised to keep it hidden no matter what pain or torture was inflicted upon them for he was once human, he still had human traits, tendencies but how long they would last remained a mystery for life itself was a mystery. There was so much to explore, so much out there he had not seen but he would forever be forced to see it in the shadows, hide in the darkness and be a fraction of what he once was. He was once human, filled with life with a hope that was snatched from him, taken by the curse placed upon him, upon his soul.

He left the inn to hunt but his thirst did not want a man, not a drunkard found in his own urine or vomit, it wanted a woman, a pure soul, it wanted her and it was going to do whatever it could to have her, to hear her screams, her begs and pleads for mercy as he was compelled to drink her blood deeply, to feed from her blood like a savage animal.

'I will not take her life' he promised himself.

Anyone but Isolla, he could accept anyone but Isolla, not her, not her pure soul or pure heart. She was a soft heart, a gentle one with a long life ahead of her. He was the monster with a longer life, perhaps one that was everlasting making his life worth less, making his life almost worthless... broken. What was life if it had no ending? Was it worth living or was it broken? He was an evil monster, a stain on God's boot. He was nothing to God, he was nothing to Lucifer either but he was just a plaything for both of them. He was disgusting, he felt like he was ill, mentally and physically. The blood within him burnt him; the blood within him was breaking him, making him sick. The hunger within him sickened him; the need for blood just killed him inside. He stalked the streets hunting for the innocent, those he could drink from easily, without fear or pain but there was always pain, each choice had consequences. 

The monster he had become was enough to make him feel sick inside, feel his stomach tearing itself its open. His life was a nightmare but he could not undo what was done, just not damn others to the painful existence he was forced to endure. He and the other knights, Blood Brothers he named them were now forced to endure such a painful, twisted existence no one knew what to do to stop themselves from living such a life. The thirst for blood each night grew stronger, the pull to drink more violent every night. The pain inside him, like his insides were twisting, was not something he could simply just ignore. 

He stalked a young woman, almost without realising how much he wanted her blood. Her flowing red hair was mattered, split at the ends but he did not care, he was after her blood, only after her blood. The monster wanted her, she was its second choice and Isolla would have been its first had he let it choose her. 

Her blood ran through her body, he could hear it, smell it and almost taste it. What he was about to do was going to end her life and sustain his own but he valued every human life and every time he fed, pain swept across him, kicking him as he struggled to understand himself, struggled to understand what he had become. His life was a battle that was not going to be won, blood was he needed to survive and so he would be made to survive, made to feed. He was a thing to be hunted down but for at least those moments, he was doing the hunting.

He grabbed her, not even able to look into her eyes as he embraced her, pulling her head down, covering her mouth as he bit into her neck. She screamed, almost begging for mercy, for a god that would not come for her but the monster showed no mercy nor wishes to show her any mercy as it drank deeply. Soon she became too weak to even concentrate, she was slowly drifting in and out of consciousness and finally embracing death as it embraced her. 

"Forgive me" he whispered as he put her body down, his face covered in her blood. What had he just done? Offered another life for the monster, taken yet another life, handing it to the monster, probably allowing him to grow stronger but he was dead inside, he felt no life nor peace but a promise and a want stopped him from ending it all, from chucking it all in and walking away.

The blade shadows followed him, was it Lucifer coming to collect him or another of his kind? Was it one of his brothers paying a visit or just a hope, a fear?

"You sensed me, brother" a familiar voice whispered in the air.

"Show yourself, I do not speak to the shadows" Valenus ordered.

"And yet the shadows are where we live, where we hide to feed and feel like monsters once the deed has been done" the voice commented almost poetically before emerging from the shadows. His red hair looked almost as red as blood against his pale skin and dark, almost monstrous eyes.

"You should hide those, brother"

"I can see through your mask as you can my own, it is how we seem to be able to identify each other. I have not the energy to try and hide my face from you, not when you do not from me"

"Dinabron, forgive me but I am not interested in a conversation over a dead body" Valenus replied almost rudely yet somehow held back his tongue.

Dinabron did not make another sound, just walked down the street. There was no lighting, no one guarding the cities just farm animals sleeping in the night, sleeping in the meadows. The grass just looked grey, almost black to Valenus's eyes. He struggled to see anything other than grey and black, there were no colours, just monsters lurking in the dark with the only colour he could see clearly standing out against a background of grey... red.

"Why are you here, Dinabron, what is it you want?"

"Are you frightened of what is to come?" he asked out of the blue.

"Yes, it frightens me. Do you not feel the same about our... condition?"

"You make it sound like a sickness. This life is not a sickness; it is what we have made it. We may not have chosen this life but it chose us for a reason"

"Do you seriously believe that? Do you seriously believe we were chosen, like some higher calling?" Valenus questioned. 

"I believe we were meant to become what we are. Come, brother, let us feed"

"I have fed" he replied aggressively.

"Come anyway" Dinabron ordered as he walked down the street slowly, his feet barely made a sound. "You have been living in your own world and that is fine, that is your choice, my brother however I feel it is now time to reach out, venture into the light, so to speak"

"Like you have, you mean?"

"I like to think so, perhaps even believe it. I have accepted what I am, I live by the rules the blessing has set up for us. I sate the hunger and it gives me power, control over my life. I feel myself becoming more and more powerful every time I feed off a 'poor, innocent human soul' because I know what I am, I understand and accept who I am"

"Life will fail us, brother. As the times change, more and more people will know of us, of our kind and then what will happen? What will we do when they know what we are and eventually, how to kill us? Will we keep running or will there be a time when we have to stop running?"

Dinabron just rolled his eyes before chasing a woman. The poor woman had just left a small tavern with drink staining her clothes, her dark hair dancing in the wind, her green dress beautiful, handmade by the look of it. She certainly caught Dinabron's attention, not necessarily Valenus's attention but Dinabron was interested in her, in killing her. Her blood ran through her veins, even from a distance, Valenus could smell it lingering. He could not deny the want, the almost need to taste it, as if one poor victim was not enough. Two in a week... that was him losing control of himself, feeding the monster to grow stronger and stronger but why? What was he going to do with all his power and no one to share it with? Would he become a monster, sticking to the shadows, stalking and hunting people within them?

"What is your fear, brother?"

"You know my fear. I cannot be as you are now, ruled by the curse" Valenus replied almost as a warning.

"You know what we are, you have seen it. Perhaps your world darkening will open your eyes, force you to accept that which you are. You are no longer a human, put it aside!"

"I, like you, used to be human. I used to know the warmth of the sun, the taste of wine and food and now? Now, over a year later, I know only the taste of blood, fresh blood straight from veins of innocent people"

"Perhaps it is your guilt. If it helps, I do not blame you for what happened, I did at first, I cursed your name until I realised what this actually is. It is not a curse, not something evil to curse and complain about but something good, something... pure. You made us into something the king would never have made us and for that, I no longer blame nor curse you but instead I thank you"

"What kind of sick and twisted thing is that? You are thanking me for making you into this? I was not the only one who put my blood into that cup, I however helped retrieve it and for that, I am truly sorry. I hope you are pretending to like this... curse, just so you can... survive it. Otherwise I fear for you, you are my blood brother, I will look out for you but that is as far as I go"

He left Dinabron there; he could smell the blood in the air, the sickening feeling. There was a life being taken by a man merged with a monster. He was a sickening man, leaving a sickening feeling in Valenus's stomach, a twist in it. 

He left for the inn, realising he could not staythere. Isolla was just lying there, close by. He did not touch her, he couldnot do it even if he wanted to, too much of a gentleman to hurt her, to want todrain her. He wanted to be close to her but it seemed fate had a different ideafor them both; he had to leave, leave the inn and the city. He could not stay,not with her or around her or in the city but he did not want to just leave. Heslept until the night fell before writing a long letter, leaving it for her onthe table; she deserved to know the truth, the complete truth despite how muchit killed him to write it to her.