Bride of the Night

Chapter1

**Chapter One: *Lana***

Some say that death is eternal damnation, others say it's freedom. I used to say that I fell in the second category. I longed for that freedom—the freedom of choice, of sadness, even the freedom of nothingness.

From a young age, I would say, I held a fascination for it. Death, I mean. Not in the morbid way that people expect, but in the ways that people wonder about a place they’ve never been too. To be in a limbo, like some religions believe in, or even to be tortured in hell, as others suggest. I guess my fascination prepared me.

My eternal damnation began on a day like any other. My classes had just ended, and I was walking home, lost in thought. Nothing unusual, at least not at first. But sometimes, the mundane things are the very moments that precede everything falling apart.

It all happened in a flash.

The blaring of horns. The screech of tires. I was crossing the street when the car came out of nowhere, swerving out of control, metal twisting, glass shattering. Everything spun. My body slammed against the pavement with sickening force, my vision clouding. Pain exploded in my chest, and then the world went dark.

I don't remember the rest. Just the cold bite of the asphalt against my skin, the rush of blood, the sharp ache of my final breath.

---

"She's gorgeous." The voice was unfamiliar, though it sounded strangely comforting. She could hear it as if it was coming from somewhere far away, or perhaps from inside her own mind. She struggled to open her eyes, but it felt like a battle against weights pressing down on her eyelids, a force that seemed to want to keep her in the dark.

When her eyes finally blinked open, a soft groan escaped her lips. There was a sharp ache in her gums, an unfamiliar tension running through her arms. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

"She's waking up!" Another voice exclaimed, this one deeper, with an edge of urgency. The panic in their voice was confusing. Why were they panicking?

"What’s going on?" she croaked. Her throat felt dry, raspy, like she'd been screaming for hours.

The man, the first voice, stepped forward. She didn't recognize him. He was tall, imposing, dressed in dark clothes that seemed too perfect for the place she was in—a room she couldn’t place. A stone-cold chill filled the air, and everything felt too quiet, too still.

"What do you remember?" he asked, his voice steady, calm. It didn’t sound like a normal question. It felt like an order, or perhaps an expectation.

Lana’s mind felt like it was spinning, "I finished my lecture… I was heading home. Then… there was a car." Her voice faltered. "I was in an accident!" Panic clawed at her chest, but the odd thing was—it wasn’t the accident that caused the tightness in her throat. It was something deeper. Something in her body. Everything felt different.

"You were in an accident," the man confirmed, his face serious, unreadable. "You were dying."

Lana’s heart skipped a beat. If she was dead, then why was she here? Why was she breathing? Was she dreaming? Was she in hell? "If I’m dead, then how come I’m here? Am I in hell?" She half-expected someone to burst out in laughter, a camera crew to spring from the shadows and tell her it was all a joke. But no one laughed.

"No." The man’s eyes darkened. He stepped closer, his figure more commanding now. "Before you could die, someone found you. Someone turned you."

Lana swallowed hard. "Turned me?" The panic bubbled over. "Into what?"

The man’s lips curled slightly, though there was no humour in his expression. "Well, in old language, some would call us Nosferatu, or Striga. You may know us better as… vampires."

She waited for the punchline, but it never came. Instead, her stomach lurched in disbelief as the words settled in her mind. Vampire?

Lana took a moment, really looked at the people standing before her. They were beautiful in ways that were unnatural. Perfect, as if the human form had been refined into something divine and yet alien. The man was tall, with sharp features, hair dark as midnight, and eyes that gleamed like blood-soaked rubies. His presence was overwhelming, commanding.

The woman beside him was just as striking, her features delicate yet fierce, with hair that seemed to shimmer in the dim light. But it was her eyes that held Lana’s gaze—clear and silver, almost like the moonlight had been trapped within them. She was breathtaking.

"Are you saying I’m a vampire?" Lana asked, the words tasting foreign on her tongue. The very idea seemed so... absurd.

"You are," the woman replied, her voice soft, like wind chimes on a gentle breeze. "Just as we are. We are the same."

Lana blinked, still processing. "This has to be a joke. This is ridiculous." But the lack of a heartbeat, the absence of warmth in her chest, made her question everything. ‘This isn’t a joke,’ she realized. There was no punchline, no one hidden behind the curtain.

"I'm afraid not," the man said, stepping closer. His eyes, cold but not unkind, locked onto hers. "You’re dead. And now, you’re like us."

The woman smiled warmly, stepping forward to place a hand on Lana’s shoulder. "But we’re not here to make you fear us. We’re here to help you."

Lana’s mind raced. "Who turned me?" she asked, voice tinged with suspicion. "Was it you?" Her eyes darted between them, searching for any sign of deception.

The man exchanged a brief glance with the woman. She smiled again, a smile that seemed both comforting and dangerous all at once.

"No," The man said, his voice calm but firm. "We didn’t turn you. But we can teach you how to live like this. We’ll show you how to control it. We are here to take care of you."

Lana frowned. "And why would you help me?"

The woman’s eyes softened. "We want to help you because we can," she said, her tone warm, but there was an edge of something else—something deeper, something ancient. "But we also have a request."

"Which is?" Lana asked, heart pounding.

The couple exchanged a look. The man then spoke, his voice careful. "We want to adopt you."

Lana blinked, completely caught off guard. "Adopt me? Why? You do realise I’m not a child, right?"

The woman stepped forward. "We’ve been trying for a long time to have children. But you, Lana, you’re special. You're a ‘noble’ vampire, and that’s rare."

Lana’s confusion deepened. "What do you mean, noble?"

The man smiled, a small glimmer of pride in his eyes. "Vampires are ranked by strength. The stronger you are, the higher your status. My wife and I, we are nobles, and so are you."

Lana's mouth went dry. "I’m… a noble?"

The woman nodded. "Your eyes, love. Those lavender eyes. Only the strongest vampires have them. Over time, they could darken or lighten, but we know you are powerful. And that is why we believe you could be a child right for us.”

Lana couldn’t process all of it. It felt like she was drowning in too much information. She just wanted something familiar, something that didn’t feel so ‘wrong’.

"So, you want to adopt me because I’m… strong?" she asked, trying to make sense of the madness.

"No," The woman said gently, her hand still resting on Lana’s shoulder. "We want to adopt you because we want to love you as our own. We’ve been searching for a child to raise. A child we can teach, guide. But the rules of our kind are clear. Only those of equal or higher nobility can be adopted into families like ours. And you, Lana, you’re one of us now."

Lana looked from one to the other, her mind still struggling to accept it all. She had no idea what this new world was, or what these people wanted from her. But she was alone in it, and they were offering guidance.

"I’ll come with you," she said finally, her voice small. "But let’s hold off on the adoption for now."

The woman’s smile widened. "That’s all we ask."

The man’s gaze softened, just a hint of approval in his eyes. "May we know your name?"

Lana took a breath, feeling the weight of her new reality press down on her. She’d been reborn into something she didn’t understand, and though she wasn’t sure about everything else, there was one thing she knew for certain.

"My name is Lana," she said, the words finally feeling like they belonged to her.