Aksana sat motionless, gazing into the crackling fire that served as the only light within the deeper darkness that was her crypt far below the the ground. Her nerves were set on edge. Her mind, a whirlwind of doubt, fear, and tormenting memories. Try as she might, the chill from earlier lingered upon her, cloying presence in her thoughts and emotions.
She had lived long, long enough to see empires fade and rise and fade again. Her eyes had witnessed the birth of many and the deaths of many more. Throughout the ages, she had traveled in search of a place of her own. She had thought she had found that place and found someone who could feed the gnawing, insatiable hunger within her.
He had returned. He who she had thought to have been vanquished many years ago. He who had cursed her with an emptiness within. He who had taken her family, her father, her sister. Worse still, she had been his slave, his weapon just for the sheer sadistic pleasure it brought him. When all was said and done he had taken away everything.
Aksana tensed, her fingers crushing the ends of the armrests as she recalled every bitter, hollow feeling one after the other. Her heart stuttered in revulsion at the very thought of the man's name. She quivered in her chair, eyes shutting tight, though that did nothing to ward off the specters of the memories clawing at her mind.
His name was Fabian, a most cursed name, and even though it was his true name, it was just one of many. Aksana cursed the first time she heard it uttered. She could remember clearly when they had first crossed paths. That day, like so many others after it, would be marred with that black name... Fabian.
Her father, Magnus who was leader of their clan was being honored by several smaller clans for a recent victory in battle. There were vampires, human thralls and servants all around . There were also those who sought favor from her father through gift or tithe or some other offering. Fabian was the latter of these.
At that time, Fabian was a mere hedge mage, nothing more than a local herb doctor. Although he did dabble in the arts, but he used words and tricks rather than possessing any real talent. Though he long had purported the ability to raise the dead and command spirits, many of his peers and those sensitive to the metaphysical doubted he had any real magic talent at all.
Whatever the rumors and whispers that flew about regarding his talent none of that seemed to deter him path toward power. Aksana frequently saw him in his drab, dark robes shuffling toward her father's end of the table in hopes of gaining his ear to tell another one of his lies. He would prostrate himself rather dramatically each time in honor of her father, proclaiming allegiance to their clan's cause and offering His aid if they ever needed it.
Magnus had heard all about Fabian. Her father was well acquainted with his kind. Men who thought to ingratiate themselves into Magnus' good graces and by proxy his power. Though her father accepted the offerings politely, he dismissed the man gently. If truth were told he saw the human as nuisance.
Each time he was dismissed, Fabian would hurry away from the halls quickly as if something were urgently needing his attending, though no one really knew what went on in the man's head. Always though before he left, He would turn and lay eye on Aksana.
His magical ability may have been doubted, but the one feature that also held power was his cold, piercing blue-gray eyes. Every time she felt him look at her, her skin crawled, and she felt a twinge of nausea. Aksana loathed him and often silently prayed to Mother Night to rip his eyes from his sockets.
As the years went by, her father rose in stature, propelling his name and their clan to higher and higher positions within the community garnering the respect and admiration of many on the Elder Council, a group specifically set up to oversee all the clans. It was no wonder that when the call came for their clan to go aboard one of the colony ships and start a new life in America, no one was surprised.
What did come as a surprise to her father and to Aksana was that Fabian had quietly slithered his way into the favor of a few of the most influential on the Council.
When Magnus' Clan was asked to undertake the journey to the new world he had oozed himself into a position to become their clan's human contact in the new world. Though a symbol of honor and pride for her father and other members of their clan, the voyage became Aksana's journey towards a pained and agonized existence.
When they arrived in America, their clan was transported by wagon train. Thirty coffins, each holding one member, sealed completely for the entire ride to lessen risk of the sun or being discovered. Aksana slept like all the rest, awakened only when they arrived safely underground below the settlement they'd been chosen to inhabit.
Upon their arrival the clan's human servants opened each of their coffins under the watchful eye of their contact, Fabian. He greeted each vampire as if they were royalty though most of the clan including her father ignored him and went about beginning their allotted tasks.
Aksana nearly screamed when they opened her coffin lid. Those eyes of his peering down at her above a wide yellow-toothed grin. Had she not been a vampire, she would have turned white in shock. She felt his eyes following her as she stepped out of her coffin and made her way up into the manor itself and into her new chambers.
One good turn of fortune was that Fabian did not live within the manor. Being a human and a servant, he was by station forced to live elsewhere.
Additionally when it became know he delved into dark arts and associated with dark characters, he was prohibited him from residing in town. Therefore, in order to remain the clan's daytime contact with the outside world he was forced to take up residence in a cave that was adjacent to the manor's lands.
Every night when the sun went down, Aksana would see Fabian reporting news to her father. Always before he left to attend to tasks appointed to him she would find his gaze settled upon her.
Aksana voiced her feelings of trepidation and revulsion to her father regarding Fabian and how the man looked at her, but her father dismissed them as foolishness. Magnus saw no threat from Fabian. Her father thought the man weak and inconsequential.
Though Aksana was unable to get her father to acknowledge her concerns, Aksana's sister Valera agreed and shared her concerns about the man. After each one of Fabian's visits to their manor, Aksana would tell her sister of how he looked upon her. Valera would listen and comfort her and for a time that helped quell her unease.
As time passed and their clan's influence grew in their corner of the new world, Fabian's visits became more frequent. Each time he visited his boldness toward Aksana increased. No longer did he seem content with allowing his eyes to linger over her body.
