ELFIN BEGINNINGS AND A VAMPIRE'S PRAYERS

They hovered over her ancestral home, a rough, little stucco and brick villa adjacent to the ancient cathedral. She was able to fly on her own. It comes natural to certain life-eaters. Her father did not see her at first. He just sat there, pressed against one of the courtyard walls. She could tell he was praying. She could 'hear' his words and taste his fear. They checked her bed. They knew it was empty. He hated going to the police. Fraternizing with the Israelis made him more vulnerable to attack and the Armenian enclave was small and exposed as it is. She could see him trembling. She could hear the whimpers. And then she cried. His ears could not detect her sobs. She was too far away. But the Spirit of the Judean Zephyr was playful that darktime and a finger of the night breeze kissed her cheek, brushing away a dewy drop of sadness which fell down to the world below.

It hit her father's ear. He looked up and saw her tiny, broken face gazing down at him. He saw the heartfelt longing in her eyes. The rest of her, wrapped in chaste, dark cloth, blended into the empty sky. Her tragic features suspended in the void like illusions at a seance. But Roland sensed the dawn. He grabbed her arm and whispered - Come. We will face this truth tomorrow. She knew what he meant. The benevolent enchantment flowed through her. And her life-eater's eyes beheld the first pale glow of fire in the sky. She turned and followed him into the darkness.

Now new born vampires often feel remorse. They long for the old life and those left behind. Some try to go back. They tap at windows and sublimate through bedroom doors. Yet these desperate gestures only make things worse, causing madness, hysteria and death. But Laila did not know this. And that day, as she lay deep within the blackness of a crypt, her young girl's soul called out for redemption. Would it come? Perhaps, but not in the way she imagined...

But Roland loved her. He held her and tried to comfort her. For he too remembered pain. It's like that for the ones known as elves. And she clawed at her face and screamed as the skin peeled away from her flesh and a fiery hunger began to grow....

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May you never know fear...May you never know pain...May you hide from death now and for forever..... (a new born vampire's prayer)