Thebes

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Note - They are speaking in the Coptic language (parts in red). This is the language spoken in Egypt from 200 AD. until the 17th century. Neeb = Owner/Master

"Look at her Nicoleta...So pitiful..." My maker spoke in an orotund tone of voice. The look of disgust on her face was so glaring it was as if she wished to spit on the face of the girl at the other end of the room. A perilous thunderstorm threatened the night, beating powerfully like the pounding of a drum. Heavy rain pattered against the stone walls of the temple. The ulukpu, the Igbo word for clouds, were angry tonight. Where I come from a storm was a foreboding that danger was nearing. Unfortunately for this girl, I was afraid tonight's storm might be her last. I had not known my maker for too long, but what I did know of her was enough to presume that she would not show the girl any mercy. I kneeled silently beside Nefertiti who sat impertinently on her golden throne with Berenice faithfully beside her. What made me different than the child in front of me? I thought as my eyes focused on the girl at the end of the runway who belonged to the Land of the Turquoise. The day I became Nefertiti's progeny was the day free will was stolen from me. I had no other choice but to obey the request of my maker, so no matter how much I wanted to tear my eyes away, they remained cemented on the young girl before me. The grandiose pillared hall of the temple was lined with terracotta lamps illuminating everything around us. I could see everything. She had been kept awake for days, I could tell by the darkness surrounding her eyes. Her long raven hair was a tangled mess, and the beige garment she wore was battered with dirt and what resembled blood. The very sight of it caused my nostrils to flare, I could smell it...from here. My throat tensed while my brows twisted together.

I could never quite get used to my novel urgency for blood. While I lived in the Nri Kingdom, I had been thirsty on a blistering hot day many times. In fact, some days the need to quench my thirst did not trouble me at all, but nothing was quite like the thirst I felt for blood, the ceaseless appetite for it. A heart-rending cry enveloped the room, it was almost as if the sound had been trapped in this very arena, and we could not escape it nor could she. It was as plain as night - the truth that some who stood in this hall reveled in her screams, yet none more so than the two women beside me. "Perhaps if she were to spend less time screaming, she might make it at least half the way." Nefertiti blesses us with a fiendish smirk, her feline eyes outlined by kohl as she slid her thin taut fingers down her neck before settling on a ruby gem held by a thick golden necklace she always seemed to wear. She had a fierce jawline, and thick ebony hair, and was very likely the most beautiful creature I'd ever seen. Today she'd worn a black tunic dress embellished with golden jewels and gems. Berenice wore all dark clothing as well to match Nefertiti. However, I wore a deep blush-colored linen dress that was gifted to me by Helios before he left for Cairo. Helios wasn't so bad, but I knew not to make any suppositions where I hadn't gathered all details. A more suitable phrase would be that I rather enjoyed getting to know him.

Another gut-wrenching scream filled the empty spaces of the hall and rang outwards, like that of a parrot. The coal stones on the runway were much too hot for a human to withstand. Egyptian Cobras hissed and lined the border of the walkway, there was simply no escape. Apart from the blazing stones, the runway was filled with fragments of crushed glass. She was to walk down the runway to meet Nefertiti as part of her task, but the girl could hardly stand on her own two feet any longer. It was an impossible task. I wanted to advocate for the girl, to reach out and help her, but I remained in uncomfortable silence. The only sound that mattered in this room was the shrieks of anguish coming from the child, she had to be no older than Adanna, perhaps twelve of age? "Look in her eyes, see..." Her regal tiger-spotted cat perched itself on the arm of her throne, she lifted a hand and began to caress it. "What it is I should be looking for, neeb?". I questioned, my words spoken at a steady pace. I had picked up enough of the language because time had been moving slowly at first. I was so very afraid to slaughter the words in front of my maker, so I settled on slow speaking. "You can judge a person's strength just with a quick glance in their eyes". I brought my gaze to her black opaque eyes, red with tumult, and only saw a young girl that was pleading for help. I saw Adanna. Before I had a chance to speak, my maker spoke once more...

"She does not have what it takes to be one of us." She snarled with a look of displeasure. "What will we do with her, Berenice?" She tilts her head back in a sound of laughter I could only describe as malevolent. "Not what we will do with her, neeb." She says running a tongue across her lip. "What she will do with herself. Berenice shoots Nefertiti a sinister smile before abandoning her post beside her and pressing her barefoot into the bed of sizzling stone. She gasped mockingly as she did so. To the human eye, her movements would have been much too fast, in no time at all she had dropped the child at the bottom of the steps headed to the throne. "Leta, you must join Berenice. She speaks like a true vampire. She will be your counsel." Nefertiti slants her head ever so slightly to whisper. "Some may use blood as just a means to survive, but that is not the true path of a vampire." She opens her mouth to speak again, but her eyes divert to the girl as she had begun to move. Nefertiti shifts her head to glare at the girl as if she was no more important than a fly on the grained walls. I held my breath in as she got closer, glowing blood dripping from the steps she had just came from. It was unbearable, I couldn't control my lust to feed.

"Please I have no place else to go." The girl croaked, falling on her knees and sliding both hands to rest atop Nefertiti's feet. Her head was bowed but you could see the way her lips trembled. Each boom of the storm causing her to jerk and the last one startled me just the same. "Get up, you foul human!" raged Berenice, she gripped the girl up tightly by the neck. All the while Nefertiti merely shifted the position of her feet and held up a hand. "What ever will we do with her, Berenice?" She asks again, this time with far more vindication than the last. "Young girl, what is that in your hand?!" sputtered Berenice, but her look wasn't one of bewilderment. My eyes suddenly fell on her hand, it was a large shard of glass, triangular in shape. It was piercing deeply into her skin as she held it soundly. The look of utter shock told me she'd just noticed it too. The enticing smell of liquid gold was causing my mouth to water at its sides, I didn't know how long I could tolerate this form of torture. "No, no, no, no!" The girl wept frantically, she knew. "You will hold the glass up and slice your neck evenly, a nice and clean cut, then we will drink your blood that has been blessed by the land of the turquoise" Berenice compelled, the girl's eyes hypnotized as she obeyed the command. "Thank you for your visit, Gamila." Nefertiti drawled in a thick tone of voice, a twisted grin on her face.

As her tiny hands sliced smoothly through her neck a sheet of rouge blood spouted out of her. All the vampires in the premises seethed with hunger, and I hadn't noticed until a growl escaped my throat that I had been doing it too. Nefertiti stood up now, holding up a hand and hushing her progenies. "My children! She boomed, lifting her hands at either side of her to address the crowd. "We are vampires, birds of the night, we are married to nightfall and loyal to no human, if not but only for their blood!" Her voice rang out amongst the crowd,  "Now you may feed! She stepped back as a herd of vampires attacked the body of the girl. I was not able to resist, my body lunged forward before I could make the command in my brain. My mouth pierced the skin of her neck as other bodies slammed into mine, just as hungry, if not more so than I was. "Are you feeling at home yet, Nicoleta?" A voice muttered into my ear. Berenice...