Chapter 1 - A New Life

The room was quiet. A cold draft blew through the partially opened circular window. A child, buried under the covers of the bed. Arms wrapped around itself and shivering. The snow outside had piled up from the bottom of the window cill, creating a small ramp from the ground to the bottom of the window. Eventually, the child sat up in bed. It was a girl, looking no more than 16 years old. Her hair was short, and fell to around her neck, the tips of them were dyed dark red. She brushed some of her hair out of her face and stood up out of the bed. Her bare feet landed on the cold wooden floor, and the girl immediately jumped back up onto the bed. The flooring was like ice, and it stung her foot. She didn't have any socks, or pants for that matter. All she was given to sleep in that night was a simple ragged shirt with holes in it, and a pair of undergarments.

Slowly, the girl looked around the room. There was a dresser next to the bed, her normal clothes folded inside. Above that was a small wooden box, with nothing inside. Beside the dresser was a full body mirror hung from the wall. A bit of light from the window reflected off of it and shinned elsewhere in the room. There was a desk and a wooden chair across from the dresser, though it was quite a distance. A set of paper was left on the desk. The girl was working on the night before. She spent her free time at night drawing and writing. The room the girl was in was large. The flooring made from darkened wood, there was a small two steps that led to an elevated center of the room where her bed was positioned. Four long poles stuck up from the bed's edges, and met at the top, holding a thin wooden platform above them, with thin, black, see-through drapes dripping over the four corners. The bed sheets were the same color.

The girl shifted in her bed and looked back to the window. The staircase surrounding her bed may have only been two steps, but the distance from the window to her bed was still a walk. About twenty steps. She took a deep breath and stretched. Two black feathery wings unfolded from her back, stretching out beyond two of the bed poles. They then went back to their original position, folded up neatly behind the girls back. When like this, it was like the wings where hardly there at all. Only when she chose to stretch them out where they apparent. The girl took another deep breath and quickly jumped from her bed, she ran over to the window, jumping on one leg at a time as each step on the ice-cold wood floor practically stung her feet. The girl quickly slammed the window shut and ran back to her bed, and jumping onto it. Quickly, she wrapped her feet up in the blankets and tried to warm them up. She shivered and laid back down against the pillow. Her stomach growled. A vampire, like herself, needed to drink blood at least one or more times a day. Blood is what fueled her, and gave her energy. Blood is what helped her heal simple wounds, like the bruise around her left eye, forcing the girl to keep it only partially open. It wasn't the only bruise on her body. There was one on her shoulder, and one on her arm as well. They made her skin feel sore, and she craved the warm taste of fresh blood, hoping that today she would receive some.

She sat up quickly as a loud knock came from the door to the room. She looked over at it, breathing a bit heavily. The girl sat in bed for a moment, staying quiet. Another loud knock. Slowly, the girl climbed out of bed and ran to the door. She would be forced to stand still on the cold floor, and she dreaded it. Quickly, the girl opened the door and looked out into the hallway. The flooring out there was more or less the same. A red carpet covered almost eighty percent of the floor though and ran down to the other end of the hall. In Front of the girl was a tall woman. She was wearing a black nightgown, with a fur coat wrapped around her. It kept her warm. The wings on her back were also folded, just like the girls.

"Hello, darling? Are you ready to eat something?"

"Y- Yes Mistress Valerie." The girl said in a horse and tired voice, holding back the feeling to let out a squeal from the icy floor. The woman outstretched her hand for the girl to take, and she did. There was hesitation in her movement and Valerie took notice of it, but she kept quiet about it for now.

"Come on, then Emily." She laced her fingers around the girls and started walking down the hall with her. As they passed the first room to the right of Emily's, the girl shuttered and slowly shifted away from its door, bumping into Valerie, and quickly apologizing. She frowned a bit and walked beside Valerie, trying to act normal.

"Smile, darling." She whispered. Quickly, Emily tried to force a smile onto her face, but the bruise around her eye was close enough to her mouth to make it a challenge to smile. It hurt to even try. As the two walked down the hall, they passed a couple of paintings. Some of the family members, and some of the scenery, and landscapes. Slowly, Valerie turned the corner and walked down another long hallway. It was quite a walk to the dining room, and Emily dreaded it. This whole place was so much bigger then she had expected when she first arrived. Upon entering the dining room, Emily could first see the giant gold chandelier hanging above the long rectangular table, with a black cloth covering it, the edges of the cloth dangling off the side. There were almost two dozen chairs at the table, each one a mix between black painted wood, and red velvet cushions. The flooring of the dining room was made from dark wood, like every other room in this place, but the large red carpet the two had been walking on expanded to cover most of the flooring in the room. A few semi-circular windows were outlining the left well, overlooking a large snowy cliff. A storm was raging outside, frost covering the windows. The room was freezing, and goosebumps ran up Emily's bare arms and legs. She was shivering and wished to ask Valerie for a little more to wear, but she was scared to.

Valerie walked Emily over to the chair, and sat her down in it, pushing the chair closer to the table. The girl held her hands between her legs, trying to warm them up, but it did little to nothing. Two servant's each dressed in black maids attire walked out of the second set of door. Those led to the kitchen, a place Emily had been in only a few times. The kitchen was large, like all the rooms, and consisted of several fireplaces, and counters used for preparing meals. Blood was a common thing to see in the kitchen, according to the servants that roamed the castle. Each of them, unlike Valerie, and Emily, where human. Many of them were held captive and forced into slavery by Valerie, acting as there Mistress. Both servants had there long black hair tied back behind there head, and each servant was carrying a large silver platter with only a single bowl on each.

Valerie sat down at the head of the table, which was the chair beside Emily. She pulled her hair back behind her head, to keep it out of her face, and looked at Emily. She stared at the two pale horns that protrude from the girls head. It was a rare thing for a vampire to have, and it was a difficult thing to hide. The horns had been dulled recently, making them look more like curved subs coming out of her head. The young vampire looked at the servers as they approached. Both of them slowly placed the silver platter in front of the two vampires, and promptly left. Silverware and cloth were present.

Emily looked down at the bowl. It was a sight she was used to, as this was a dish she actually quite enjoyed. It was a simple bowl of soup, but rather than bowled broth, it was thick, warm blood, with indescribable chunks of meat floating inside it. Emily lifted the bowl with both hands and took a sip from it. She wondered why Valerie decided to let her have this again? Emily could taste that the blood wasn't exactly fresh, and the chunks of meat she sucked up and chewed, were rather old, but she ate the meal nonetheless. As she continued to take small sips from the bloody soup, she could feel the small bits of strength returning to her. The girl's complexion changed, and the bruises on her body slowly began to fade. Emily then started to flinch, as she felt a previously hidden whiplash, that went from the top of her back, all the way to her hips, slowly patched itself up. The feeling stung her, but she tried to ignore it. When the bowl was empty, and the meat was chewed, Emily put the bowl back down onto the silver platter, letting out a soft sigh in relief.

"Better, hmm?" Valerie said, sipping her bloody soup using a spoon. She went much slower, and ate in a much more professional manner, "You manners could still use some work though." She tells her a bit coldly, taking another long sip from her spoon. Valerie's soup was much fresher. With blood, recently drained, and meat chunks just severed from some poor soul.

"Y- Yes." Emily quickly said, "I- I'm sorry." She went silent, looked down at her bare legs, and putting her hands between them again.

"See that you're more careful next time." Valerie replied, a silent 'or else' hovered in the air between them.

"I- I will." Emily nodded quickly. Her voice shaking. She sat there in silence again, patiently waiting for Valerie to finish. The young vampire tried to not look impatient, and simply stared down at herself. She couldn't help but notice something. The Servant that had delivered her food to her was eyeing her, watching the girl from the kitchen doors window. Emily tried to ignore the feeling of being watched, but in a way, she was used to it. Every day for breakfast, at least on the days she received it, the servant always watched her, never taking her eyes of the boy while she was eating. It was a bit creepy.

"Now." Valerie said, "Can we discuss your choice of outfit?" The vampire dabbed her mouth with a piece of fabric and looked to the girl. Emily looked up at Valerie and nodded nervously, a bit scared as to what she would say.

"Like I said yesterday, you're wearing that because I didn't approve of what you wore yesterday. Should you dress like that again, you will be punished. Understand?"

Emily gave a quick nod. While it was true, she was made to wear these clothes, it was a small form of punishment for what she did wear the previous day. Emily regretted it and knew if she ever tried to dress in anything the mistress didn't like, she could get whipped again, or hit, or worse. She could have been chained to 'the room' all night. Valerie simply taking her pants and long sleeve clothing, and leaving her like this in the cold weather to freeze was a soft punishment.

"You are dismissed for now. Go change." The vampire said, standing up, and slowly making her way out of the room. Emily stayed seated until Valerie was out of the room, and let out a relieved sigh. She stood up and marched back to her room, the two servants walking past her on the way out to retrieve the bowls and platters. Emily walked quickly down the halls, and over to her room, shutting the door behind her quickly and locking it. She ran back over to her bed and jumped into it, trying to stay off the cold floor. Emily let out a sigh and looked over to her dresser. Quickly, after a moment, she jumped from her bed and over to it. She pulled the two doors open and searched through it, quickly finding an outfit she could put on. Within the next minute, she had dressed in a black long sleeve shirt, and wool pants, with black socks. The girl let out another sigh of relief as she could now walk on the ice-cold floor a little easier, with the soft, and warm feeling of her socks between her skin and the cold wooden floor.

Emily walked over to her desk and sat down at it. A feather in an ink jar was waiting for her and before her a set of paper. Emily opened one of the drawers, which looked to be empty, until she reached her hand into it, and took out the bottom of the drawer. Beneath it was a small notebook she had been writing and sketching in. Emily moved aside the lessons Valerie would give her, and laid out the book on the desk in front of her. She knew if Valerie found it, that the mistress would make her life even more of a living hell. Slowly, Emily looked through it, going back to the earliest written page. A month and a half ago to the day, was the first time she managed to write one of these.

It was almost like a diary. Emily couldn't actually talk to the other servants like she would a normal person. So instead, she wrote down her thoughts in this book, keeping it a secret and hiding it from Valerie. Many of the pages consisted of her thoughts, and how she felt. None of the pages actually talked about something positive. At least not after the first week and a half of staying here. After that, Valerie began giving Emily lessons on how to act properly, and polite. She taught her how to use her powers as a vampire better, and while she had improved in her magic in that field, she was forbidden from using any other form of magic. Her spell books, her witch's hat, her wands were taken from her.

But above all of this, the majority of pages in the notebook consisted of drawing on the layout of the building. Hallways and how many steps long they were, where the stairs were located, and pretty much the layout of the entire first floor. It had been a long process, but Emily had managed to sketch out a rough draft of the layout of the first floor. She had explored every part of it, but the building had three more floors she was aware of. The second floor, the attic, and the basement. The problem was, that she was forbidden from leaving the first floor until Valerie saw that Emily was trustworthy enough to go looking around the other floors. There was a reason she was doing all this. Since the day she arrived, she had not seen her dragons once. Fus, Ro, and Dah. Three dragons she found in a temple that felt like a lifetime ago. She stole them from their nest and had been raising them. When Valerie first brought Emily here, she gave her one chance to say goodbye to the dragons and had the servants take them elsewhere in the castle. 'Pets were a distraction.' Was Valerie 's reasoning, 'If you're going to live with me, then your going to follow my rules.'

Emily decided to be a bit more daring today and wanted to at least look into the second floor. The girl put the notebook back into her hiding place after writing out her plan and put her homework back on the desk. Then she stood up and walked to her door. She opened it slowly, and peaked out, looking both directions before stepping out when the coast was clear. While there were not many servants in this place, she knew that they still walked around. They took their time to clean, and wash things, so they would spend several minutes or even several hours cleaning a single room.

Emily walked through the hallway and made a turn in the opposite direction of the dining room. 'Sixty steps' Emily thought in her mind, 'Sixty steps and turn left.' Emily counted each footstep she made and turned down another hall once she reached the desired number. She counted each step as she walked, and soon found herself in the front entrance. A massive open room, with two large staircases, that led to the second floor. From the front door, the stairs were parallel from each other, and on each side of the room. They curved around the wall, and the steps started at each side of the large black, steel door, that led to the outside. Each stair was designed in a Gothic manner, as was the golden chandelier hanging in the middle of the room. Thankfully, there was no servants insight, so Emily took this as her opportunity to sneak up the stairs. She wore socks, making her footsteps a bit more muffled, but even then, she walked slowly. At the top of the stairs was a railing overlooking the room entrance, as well as three paths to choose from.

Emily noted that she would start with the left hallway, and turned to walk down it. Like she had done before, she counted each footstep she took in her head. 'One, two, three, four, five' She stopped and looked around, making sure there were no servants on the far end of the right hall that could look over and see her. Again, the hall was empty. 'Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.' Emily found the first door. Only ten steps from the beginning of the left hall. She looked at the door for a label of some kind, but there were no markings to signify what was on the other side. While Valerie had taken her wand, and spell books, there was one thing she could take off. The summoning tattoo. A few months ago, back when she was at Neptunes Bay, the paradise resort of Ageria, an old-time friend she knew by the name of 'Elias' gave her a summoning tattoo. He spent two hours drawing the design of a wolf with spirals on her shoulder. She loved it and reminded her of times with people she used to know. But those people didn't like her. She didn't like them. One she cared about very much, turned around and stabbed her through the chest, nearly killing her. Emily frowned at the thought and put her hand near the keyhole. The tattoo on her shoulder glowed blue, covered by the black cloth of her shirt, and a ghostly blue lock pick formed in her hands. She stuck it through the keyhole and worked it around, eventually unlocking the door.

Emily looked to her left, and then to her right, before slowly turning the knob to the door and pushing it open. The room inside was a bit smaller than most rooms. It consisted of several rows of bookshelves. Each one seemed to be organized alphabetically. Emily stepped into the room and looked around at the colorful array of books and novels before her. The room looked freshly dusted and completely clean. The wooden shelves looked wet still like they were cleaned not even a couple of minutes ago. Emily approached one of the shelves and spent a minute or two looking at the books. She found a few things she could be interested in reading but did not dare take a book. She quickly made her way to the door, and left the room, after checking if the coast was clear. She noted mentally, that the first room, in the left hallway, ten steps down, is a small library. Emily then turned slowly and kept going down the hall.

'Eighty-nine, Ninety, ninety-one.' She stopped again. At the end of the hall was a glass pane door, leading to the outside balcony. Emily remembered seeing it when she first arrived here. A single second-floor balcony that ran across the length of the building. Emily made note of it and was about to turn to leave, but a booming voice called out to her from the other end of the hall.

"Emily!"

The young vampire stiffened and straightened her back. She froze completely and began to shiver. Goosebumps ran up from her legs across her body. The girl's eyes widened as she stood there, too scared to move.

"What are you doing?" The sound of footsteps approached her from behind. Emily stayed quiet, not responding.

"Emily," Valerie repeated, warningly. Again, no response came from the young vampire's lips. She was too scared to even consider turning around to face the mistress.

"Emily Come here. Now." She demanded. Emily took a deep and shaky breath, slowly turning her body to look at Valerie. The mistress had changed out of her nightgown, and into her normal clothing. Whether that consisted of a black dress or vampire garb, was entirely dependent on how she felt that day. Emily began taking slow, steps towards Valerie. Each step forward felt like a chore, and she dreaded it. Emily knew what could happen to her, but what exact form of punishment she would receive for being caught in a forbidden area was entirely new to her. This was the first time she had snuck up to the second floor, so there was the possibility that the punishment could be light.

When Emily got close enough, Valerie reached out and grabbed the girls wrist. She squeezed it tight, almost to the point where it felt like it was going to break. The young vampire let out a squeal in pain. She took a deep breath.

"I- I'm sorry." She quickly said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

Valerie did not care for the girl's apology though. She forcefully pulled on Emily's arm and started dragging her back down the stairs. Emily let out another squeal and tried to stay on her feet, but with how Valerie was dragging her, she had to be constantly moving to even stay steady. When they reached the stairs, Emily ended up tripping and falling into Valerie as she was dragged. It did little to push the vampire, but she turned her head, and glared down at Emily, giving her a death stare. Emily whimpered as she looked up at the mistress.

"P- Please, I- I'm sorry." She stuttered, repeating herself. Valerie frowned, and kept going, dragging Emily down the stairs, forcing the girl's shoulder to hit every stair on the way down. Once on the ground floor, Valerie grabbed Emily by the joint of her left-wing and pulled her up quickly. Emily let out another squeal as her wing, one of the most sensitive parts of her body, was squeezed and yanked on. Valerie made sure Emily was on her feet before continuing to drag her in silence. The grip on the young vampire waist tightened, and Emily started to fight back. She tried pulling her arm away and hitting Valerie to try and get her to let go. It felt as though her bone could shatter like glass any second. The mistress didn't react to her resistance, and soon reached Emily's room. However, instead of going into the girl's room, she made a quick turn over to the door beside it. Emily's heart stopped for a brief moment, and she started to pull on her arm harder, now desperately trying to get away from Valerie.

"Please, No, I- I'm sorry Mistress," Emily begged. Valerie pushed the door open and threw Emily inside. The young vampire hit the stone floor hard and grabbed her wrist. She started to squeeze and apply pressure to it. The room was dark, it always was, but the little light given from the hall outside was enough to illuminate everything in the room. Blood stained the cobblestone floor. Puddles, and puddles of dried blood. Machines, constructed of metal and wood were positioned everywhere. Mainly along the walls, but there were a few in the center of the room. Emily got up quickly and tried to run past Valerie and out of the room, but the mistress threw a quick punch at the girl, replacing the previously healed black eye with a fresh one. This time on her opposite eye. Emily whimpered and rolled onto the floor.

In silence, Valerie kicked the girls behind and forced her to stand up. Emily did so quickly, rubbing it, and looking to Valerie with one squinting eye. The mistress raised one arm and pointed to the corner of the room, where a chain hung from the wall with a steel color. Emily shook her head and started to back up from the corner, a few tear tracks rolling down her cheeks.

"If you don't listen, it will only make things worse." Valerie hissed, grabbing her shoulder and gripping it tightly.

"N- No, I- I'm sorry, I d- don't want t- to-"

"I don't care if you don't want to." Valerie said, cutting her off, "you must learn to listen."

Emily stood there, breathing heavily, staring at the chain on the wall. She tripped slightly as she was given a light shove forward towards it.

"Now, Emily!" Valerie hissed.

Emily jumped in fear and took another deep breath. She slowly walked to the corner of the room, her arms and legs shaking. Slowly, the young vampire sat down in front of the collar. Valerie bent over and fastened it around Emily's neck. The length of the chain attached to the wall and it's placement, forced Emily to stand up, in an awkward stoop. Tears fell from the girl's cheeks and onto the bloody floor beneath her.

"Look at me," Valerie demanded. As Emily weakly looked up towards the mistress, she was met with a hard smack across the face, "You do not wander without permission."

Emily let out a loud yelp, her face stinging.

"Y- Yes." She quickly nodded. Another smack went across the girls face.

"And you do not complain when you are punished for disobeying."

Emily quickly gave her another nod. With that, Valerie stepped back and crossed her arms.

"Two hours." She turned to leave, closing the door behind her, and leaving Emily in the pitch-black room. Her night vision, however, allowed her to see a little bit, even if very little from how dark it was.

"P- Please no." Emily whimpered.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***