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She cut him off. “It’s been over thirty years, young man. Do you know how worried I’ve been about you? You would think that my youngest son would call at least once a decade. But no. Mr. I’m-almost-eight-hundred doesn’t think his poor mother still worries about him. Your brother Angelo checks in with me now and then.” She sniffed, “Even Thomas comes by for dinner every few years. But not you. No, my baby, the youngest of all my children is far too old for anything like that. Do you know how worried I was? I was getting ready to send your brother Raphael to track you down. Who knows what could have happened to you. If you don’t check in with me more often, young man, I will track you down myself and then may the gods help you. You aren’t too old for me to put over my knee, you know.”
Throughout his mother’s lecture Seth couldn’t help but feel horrible that he hadn’t called his mother earlier. He honestly hadn’t believed she would be this worried about him.
“…could have been caught in the sunlight, or by one of those strange humans who are determined to stake us. Why did your cousin Vlad have to brag so much? If it weren’t for him there would never have been a book, and no vampire movies… His mother still cringes whenever someone brings that up, the poor dear. Well, it doesn’t set everything right, but I heard he’s still locked in his bedroom, and she only sends up old men every few days to feed him. None of the pretty young things that he used to drink from, I can guarantee you that. Teach him to blab our secrets to everyone… Oh, and your sister Grace sent me the most delightful pictures of her children—”
“Mom, I wanted to ask you something. It’s kind of important,” Seth interrupted her gossip. Now that her lecture was over, his mom was once again her usual bubbly self. And he needed to ask his question before the conversation turned into her asking when he was going to have children of his own.
“Of course, baby, what did you need to know?”
“I was wondering if you would tell me that old bedtime story I used to love.”
His mother chuckled. “Almost eight hundred and you still want to hear that old legend?”
“I tried to remember it, but I couldn’t.” He paused. “It’s really important, Mom. Please?”
“You always did say that.” She laughed. “Alright.” She sighed as only a mother can. Clearing her throat, she began her story. “Many years ago, so long ago that not even their names are remembered, long before my great-grandmother’s time, there was a powerful wizard. He fell in love with a beautiful maiden, with hair the color of the sun and eyes the color of the sky on a clear summer day. For a while the wizard watched her from afar, marveling that he was only able to see her dancing under the moon. Not once did he ever see her during the daylight, no matter how hard he tried. He’d started to wonder if she were some kind of dream. But after a while, he finally gathered his courage and approached the maid. Instead of being afraid when he approached her, she laughed with him. They spoke until the first rays of dawn appeared in the sky. When he asked if he could see her again, she promised she would return the following night.
“Weeks passed and always, the wizard was waiting in the meadow when she arrived. They were often seen dancing under the light of the moon. It didn’t take long for both to begin looking forward to their time together beneath the night sky, of being kissed by the moonlight.
“You must remember, this was long before things such as witchcraft and dancing were seen as sinful, as evil. Every night they fell more deeply in love. Finally, one night after the wizard swore his undying love for her, the maiden decided to tell him her most protected secret. She told him about her hunger for blood, how she would never be able to see the sunlight because it would kill her.
“At first the wizard scoffed at her. Thinking the maiden was simply trying to scare him, he took several steps away from her, trying to decide what he should do. He’d heard of such creatures before, but they were always monsters. Vicious beings who wouldn’t hesitate to kill because their lust for blood was all-consuming. How could this beautiful, gentle maid be such a creature, he wondered. Turning to her, he asked for proof of what she said. Before he had time to blink his eyes, the maiden was once more beside him, pulling his head down to her own for a kiss. In the kiss, she allowed her hunger for him to show; she allowed her teeth to lengthen. The wizard gasped, pulling away from her as he tasted the coppery blood in his mouth from where her razor-sharp teeth had scratched his lip.
“She walked closer to him, stepping back into his embrace. The wizard tried to protest when she kissed him again, tried to warn her of the blood in his mouth. His eyes grew wide as he felt her tongue glide across the cut, just before she pulled away. The wizard could barely believe what was happening as he realized the cut was gone.
“He asked her from where she usually fed. ‘The neck’, she replied, praying that her love wouldn’t find her repulsive. ‘Will it hurt?’ he asked. ‘I cannot allow you to make such a sacrifice for me,’ she cried. The wizard walked to her, tilting her head up. ‘I swore my undying love for you. I would give you the Moon Goddess herself if I could. It will not harm me to allow you to take a bit of my blood.’ The maiden was moved to tears, which her wizard gently dried with his handkerchief.
“With as much gentleness as she could, the maiden placed her mouth over the strong pulse in his neck. As her teeth slid into his flesh, the maiden and the wizard felt a bond form between them. One so strong it felt as if the very gods themselves could not break it. She pushed her thoughts out, directing them toward her love, images of them kissing, of slipping her dress off and allowing him to see her body naked in the moonlight. After taking only a few sips, just enough to ease the hunger caused by the blood from his lip, she closed his wound and looked at him anxiously.
She asked in a soft voice, ‘Did it hurt?’ ‘No, my love,’ the wizard assured her. The couple continued to meet every night, but the maiden refused to drink from her love again, afraid that she would do him harm if she drank from him too frequently. Though he understood her fear, he didn’t want to think of her starving herself for his sake. He asked only one thing of her, that she only drink from other women. Holding her in his arms, he told her he couldn’t bear to think of another man feeling such pleasure with her. One night, just over a week after her first taste of him, the wizard noticed his maiden was terribly weak. As he remembered their previous trysts, he recalled that each night she seemed to grow weaker, despite her assurances that she was feeding regularly.
“Then the strangest thing known to vampires happened. For the first time in remembered history, her stomach growled. The wizard was nearly frantic with fear. He called a strong soldier over to her, fearing that the oath he had made her swear was what weakened her. He wondered if women’s blood was too feeble for her. If her pain was a result of his jealousy. If it were, he swore he would never forgive himself for such selfishness, for risking her life because of his possessiveness.
“With help from the wizard, and a lingering kiss, her teeth lengthened and she drank from the soldier, careful to close the wound and erase any memory of the event. When the soldier left, confused and wondering why he had left his post, the wizard held her close to him. When his arms loosened around her wa
ist, she collapsed to the soft grass. She’d become so weak that she could not even stand on her own.
“He knew his love had drunk from the soldier, he had seen it with his own eyes, but it didn’t seem to help. In despair he called to the Moon Goddess, pleading for the answer to the cure for his love.
“In a blinding flash, the goddess appeared, in a flowing gown the color of moonbeams. She had heard his plea, and looked deep into his heart. ‘Do you truly love this daughter of the night?’ the goddess asked him. ‘I do, my goddess.’ ‘The only thing that can help her is blood. Her hunger is strong, almost unbearable, and soon she will be lost to it. She will go crazy with her need, but none will satisfy her thirst.’
“The wizard looked up at his goddess, unashamed as tears spilled from his eyes. ‘I would gladly trade my life for hers, Goddess.’ ‘You need not die for your love. You must live for her. It is only your blood that will ease her hunger.’ ‘I do not understand,’ the wizard told her.
“The goddess smiled with infinite patience. ‘There is a bond between you. It is rare for her kind to find their perfect match, their perfect mate. When she drank from you, a bond was forged, so strong, that it has erased all need for the blood of any other. You are Blood Mated to this young vampire, wizard. Only your blood will ease her hunger.’
“The maiden had listened quietly as her goddess spoke, her eyes growing wide as her goddess told the wizard how to cure her. In a weak voice, the maiden asked ‘But what if I drink too much?’ ‘You’ll know when to stop,’ the goddess reassured her. ‘Your love for him will assure that.’
“True to the Moon Goddess’s word, as soon as the maiden drank from her love she felt stronger. For months the couple lived in peace, binding their lives together under the light of the full moon, knowing that the goddess was looking down on them, smiling and blessing their union. The goddess even blessed them with a babe, the ultimate symbol of their love.
“But their happiness was not to last. Three years later, not long after the birth of their daughter, a stranger and his son came to their house. When there was no answer to his knocking, he walked inside, catching the maiden while she drank from her husband. In a rage, the man called her an unnatural beast and drove his sword deep into her body. So deep that it became buried in the wizard as well. Before her eyes, she had to watch her husband, her Blood Mate, her only true love die. Her rage grew so fierce that her eyes were said to have turned blood red.
“Pulling herself off the blade, in a frenzy she ripped open the man’s throat, uncaring that his blood would do her no good. Letting him fall lifelessly to the floor, her grief began to consume her until she noticed the child cowering in a corner. His father’s blood was splattered across him.
“At once she tried to pull him into her arms, to comfort him. But he would not go. Instead he backed away from her as much as he could. Sensing he was not yet ready to hear her story, instead she went to comfort the babe that lay near her bed. Days passed, and finally, after several nights of the widow feeding him and being kind to him, showing the boy that she meant the child no harm, he grew braver. He saw how gentle she was with the small baby, and eventually the boy finally grew courageous enough to ask her why she had killed his father.
“With tears in her eyes and voice, she told the boy her story, rocking her child the entire time. The boy watched as the widow bit her finger and allowed the babe to drink her blood. She told him all about her love and the Moon Goddess’s words. She explained all she could about her people, stories that she had only ever spoken of with her wizard. She explained how his father had condemned her to a slow death of starvation when he killed her husband, her Blood Mate.
“As she finished her tale, leaving out no detail of her life and her people, no matter how small, the widow handed the boy a box. She told him that she wanted him to have all that belonged to her and her wizard.
