Diaries of the Family Dracul - The Covenant with the Vampire Part 22

And then my arm fell, and blackness descended utterly. It was the instant of most profound ecstasy I have ever known; even now I cannot write of my own death, cannot recall it, without a thrill of pleasure, without the desire to return once more to that infinite moment.

When I woke it was night, though I could see as day. I was alone, in the family tomb, lying in the open coffin from which my sister had risen.

I went to the castle, finding that I needed not travel on foot, but could cast my essence upon the air, and move like the wind.

V. and Zsuzsa were gone; no doubt the coward knew I am now as strong as he, and will gladly destroy him. Of my darling Mary, I could find no sign.

I go now to search for a mortal who will free me with stake and knife, and end the covenant.

If I can only die innocent, without tasting of human blood, without taking a life...

But the hunger! The hunger-! I thought when I first rose it would drive me mad. I went into the forest and chased down a wolf, and suckled at its neck like a newborn.

It tasted foul, but it calmed me a time, permitting me to record the ending-and strange new beginning- of my life. But it is not enough! Not enough... * * *

G.o.d, in Whom I had put no faith, help me! I do not believe in You-did not, but if I am to accept such infinite Evil as I have become, then I pray infinite Good exists as well, and that it has mercy on what remains of my soul.

I am the wolf. I am Dracul. The blood of innocents stains my hands, and now I wait to kill him...

I have killed a man. I went in search of my own destruction, but the hunger overtook me, and I drank- drank, and found it the most divine nectar.

I am corrupt. I have tasted blood and will do so again, with relish. I dare not seek my own end now, for my tarnished soul will fulfill the covenant, and purchase V."s continued immortality.

V. will learn of this, and seek to destroy me.

And my son! He will pursue my son...

I may be strigoi, one of the Devil's own-but I swear that Mary's loving crime shall not be in vain. I will see even this great Evil turned to Good, for love's sake. I possess the vampire's powers, and shall use them all to see V. destroyed. He has created a foe as mighty as he.

And I shall not rest until I find my darling Mary, and my son, and protect them both from V."s wiles. My son, who I pray never learns what became of his father.

Go swiftly, little Stefan. May your heart remain pure, and may you find solace in the love of strangers, and a name not your own...