Within The Shadows by Julieanne Lynch Page A

unconscious, and without any ramifications. How
the hell he’d done it, I did not know, but I promised myself that
one day I would get the answers I wanted.
    Maybe.
    My head
ached from all the thinking I was doing. I wanted to call home so badly, but was scared of hearing
my mother. I did not know what to expect, so I pushed the longing
to the back of my mind, and thought of one person only.
    Alex.
    I had not
seen him since last night, and I was feeling kind of ashamed of
myself. I enjoyed every bit of our encounter, but something made me
feel very uneasy about it. It made me feel cheap and whore-like,
but it was hard trying to ignore the craving inside.
    Afanas did
not make it any easier. He was trying his best to give me the
answers I wanted, but I got the impression he was holding back on
me, and I hate liars.
    “ Ok, why here? Why Armenia?
    He shuffled
uneasily upon the stool. “Because Armenia is our home, our safe
haven away from the dangers of more sinister lairs. Here, we are
free from harm.”
    “ I still don’t get why other vampires would want to harm
you. Besides, Alex . . . I mean, Alexander, survived quite well
back home. No one ever tried anything on him, did they?”
    I could not
help but to push on.
    “ Yes, Alexander survived, but that was because of the great
lengths his father took to protect him. And there was the odd
occasion that his life was put in jeopardy.”
    “ Oh, okay. I suppose you are trying your best here, but
could you at least elaborate a little more?” I was becoming
irritated with the short answers. I wanted more. I needed
more.
    “ Well, hasn’t it become quite obvious we aren’t the monsters
folklore portrays us to be?”
    “ What do you mean?”
    “ Consider how I could have ripped your throat out, and drank
you dry. Instead, I sit here, and amuse you with my answers. There
is a war, and you play a vital role. You should have realised by
now that you are a very important commodity among vampires. You
possess what others seek, and it is you who will strengthen the
bloodline. We will evolve because of you.”
    “ Yeah, so Alex keeps telling me, but I can’t help but to
wonder as to how this whole mess started. Why are all of you so
afraid of the Nelapsi, or whatever they’re called?”
    He pondered
this before he spoke, looking at me intently, as though he was
about to reveal some deadly secret, and then he began his
story.
    “ I was born
more than two centuries ago in a small village in the Zemplin
region of eastern Slovakia. I am what you would
call a classical vampire. I am not dead or undead. I just exist. I
am what I am. But, of course, my kin, the Nelapsi, are viscous,
bloodthirsty monsters that stop at nothing in order to
feed.
    “ They care not for their donors. In fact, in most cases,
they consume blood with or without permission. It was the winter of
1790, and times were harsh. Humans were dying from starvation, and,
as you can imagine, when you rely solely on the blood of a human,
it becomes a risk to you when they are dying.
    “ Unfortunately, that didn’t stop many of my brothers.
Instead of trying to help them, many turned on the young and
defenceless, feeding and consuming their short innocent lives. I
couldn’t live with that guilt, and hated seeing the bloodshed. That
is when I found Leonid, who helped me and many of my brothers to
change what once was an acceptable way of life. We found a new way
of co-existing with humans.”
    “ But I
thought Leonid was a descendent of the Nelapsi?” I asked,
confused.
    “ Ah, you are right. His Majesty is a descendent through
birth. He, like Alexander, is an inheritor. Meaning, they were born
into their lifestyle like me, but they are not immortal. They can
live for a long time, but death does come eventually.”
    “ So, if I wanted to, I could kill them. I mean, hurt them?”
I inquired.
    He laughed
menacingly. “I doubt you would survive long enough to cause them
any kind of wound.”
    I didn’t
have the