Jackson looked at his friend Samantha. She looked simply beautiful in her red dress. Her long black hair framed her slightly angular face. Her green eyes seemed to shine with an inner light and her light golden skin seemed to glow. She smiled, revealing sharp fangs. He felt a chill down his spine. They stood facing each other on the roof of a church, somewhere in the city of New York.
Although they looked like an ordinary pair, they were not. Both of them were creatures of the night. Vampires. Jackson was a vampire. He had been one for a long time. He'd been turned into a vampire by a rather mysterious character named Rufus Maximus. Rufus was a vampire who had been around since the time of Ancient Rome. He was the lord of the vampires. One of the oldest of the undead who still walked the Earth. Rufus was the one who turned Jackson. Jackson was nineteen years old in 1922 when he became one of the undead. Samantha was far older. She was twenty three years old in 1890 when she became one of the undead. Jackson and Samantha had known each for a long time. He was the rather shy kid from the country and she was the vivacious and outgoing city girl. They met six years ago in Boston. Back then, they were both different. Jackson was a tall, well-built young man with black hair and pale blue eyes. His skin was very pale, almost bone-white. He was accustomed to wearing black. Jackson was still getting the hang of the undead thing.
There were a lot of myths about the undead that baffled young vampires such as Jackson. Vampires could not turn into bats. They couldn't turn into smoke either. They couldn't fly. They were stronger than most humans. Also, they were more agile. They could spontaneously regenerate, rapidly healing from injuries that would kill ordinary people. They could see their reflections in mirrors. They could walk into churches. Holy water and garlic couldn't hurt them. They were quite vulnerable to the effects of sunlight. Sunlight would burn to ash any vampire exposed to it. Vampires still needed to drink blood in order to survive. There weren't that many of them around in the world. Jackson was an outcast. He hadn't adjusted too well to life as a vampire. He only drank animal blood and shunned both humans and vampires.
Samantha was very different. She was a very beautiful vampire. She had grown stronger in the long time that she had been alive. She hunted anything she pleased. Samantha was known to be a dangerous vixen even among the undead. She served no one, but she went wherever she wanted. Her sire, the infamous vampire lord known as Rufus Maximus forbade anyone from hurting her. He saw himself as her father and although she would never admit it, she saw herself as his daughter. The fledgling vampire known as Jackson lived in the basement of an abandoned building in New York city. Samantha lived in a penthouse apartment watched around the clock by the Familiars, humans who were loyal to the vampires. Samantha lived like a princess. Jackson didn't like his newfound existence. He didn't like it at all.
