I’m getting too old for this.

The petite blonde woman slides slowly down the wall as I release her and wipe away a small trail of blood from the corner of my mouth.

I didn’t kill her. I never do. At least I haven’t drained a human to the point of death in the last couple hundred years, that is.

I look down at her slumped figure against the alleyway wall and sigh tiredly. Taking a handkerchief out of my pocket, I lean down and wipe away the blood that is running slowly down her neck.

Tiny blue electrical-looking sparks gather at my fingertips as I place my fingers on her neck to erase the evidence. Can’t have people walking around with puncture wounds on their necks. Causes a whole lot of panic and hysteria, which leads to vampire hunts.

My name is Darius Vasile and I’ve been alive, or rather undead, for more than a thousand years. I wasn’t always a vampire, though. That special gift was given to me on my thirtieth birthday.

I scowl at the thought as I use my vampire speed to get back to my compound. A woman scorned is nothing to sneeze about, and Sorina was no ordinary female.

The high brick walls surrounding my home comes into sight and I slow down to a more human pace. With a wave of my hand, I open the thick, black iron gate and walk inside. The guards on duty nod to me respectfully as I continue up the long pathway leading to the castle.

It isn’t really a castle, but I amuse myself by calling it such. It is huge though, and actually pretty modern. Nothing like those dark and dreary castles in vampire movies.

It is four stories tall and has about thirty guest rooms in it, along with a huge dining area, kitchen, weapons room, laundry, ball room, main hall, and a bunch of other rooms I don’t even remember.

I had it built over a century ago, so while it is technically old, it’s young considering my lifetime. Off to the side is the hall where we have blood doners, humans who know about us and volunteer to feed us.

Tonight, though, I had been feeling restless and chose to hunt instead of taking advantage of the fast-food approach.

The huge wooden double doors open automatically as I climb the stairs to the entrance. I walk inside and straight up one of the two spiral staircases, eager to get to my chamber and spend some quality alone time.

Immortality might seem like a great thing, but when you spend all that time alone and watching people die, it gets tiresome.

Because of Sorina’s curse, I’m forced to walk the Earth for eternity, forever craving blood, but even more so, craving love. Since I turned down her affections, she made sure I would never be able to find a woman to spend my life with.

Sorina and I grew up together, traveling the countryside with our Romani families. My parents didn’t approve because Sorina’s family was shunned. It was thought that they practiced dark magic. Which I soon found out was true.

I didn’t listen to them, though, because I liked Sorina. Not as a girlfriend, more like a best friend or younger sister. Until the day came that she confessed her feelings for me.

When I turned her down, she became very bitter and refused to hang out with me anymore. As the months went by, she seemed to get worse, glaring at me with dark eyes full of pain and retribution.

Which only got worse when I started seeing a woman from the village where we had camped nearby. When I brought her to my parents, on my thirtieth birthday, Sorina became so enraged, she left the campfire in tears and curses.

Later that night, I felt the worse pain of my life. It felt like my entire body was on fire. I was on the ground, writhing in pain when a pair of dainty feet entered my vision. Looking up, I saw Sorina standing above me, a smile pulling across her face.

“I curse you, Darius Vasile,” she’d said, her voice calm and her eyes glinting with some kind of unholy fire.  I swore I could see red rimming the edges of her black eyes.

“Since you have taken my one love from me, you will spend eternity thirsting and craving for that which you cannot have.”

She put her bare foot on my shoulder and pushed me onto my back. I moaned and tried to curl up to ease the pain, but she placed her foot on my legs to prevent me from moving.

“As you are a monster inside your heart, so shall you be a monster in truth. An animal who craves blood. A beast who no woman will ever love.”

She smiled again and tossed her black hair over a slender shoulder. She leaned down over me, bending low at the waist.

“But because of our childhood friendship, I will give you a chance. You can find love, but only from a woman from my bloodline.” She laughed and straightened, removing her foot. I immediately curled into a ball and rolled back on my side.

Waving a warning finger at me, Sorina continued, “But don’t expect that to happen. My descendants shall be born with an overpowering instinct to kill you.”

Her laughter had echoed as she’d left, and I had spent the rest of the night dying and being reborn into this cursed existence.

She hadn’t been lying and her curse is just as strong today as it was then. The next morning, Sorina’s mother, sister, aunt, and even grandmother had all attacked me like rabid dogs. I’d been forced to leave for my own protection as well as my family’s.

You see, I’d started craving blood then, too. And really didn’t have any control over it. I was afraid I’d end up killing someone I loved. So I had set out alone and frightened, craving blood but not knowing what to do about it.

As far as I know, I’m the first of my kind. I figured out by accident that I had the power to create others like me, so I became excited, thinking I finally didn’t have to be alone anymore. I could have a family. But not everyone reacted to the change well. Some turned into mindless beasts and I had to kill them.

Those who did make it through, still weren’t like me. Not completely. They weren’t as powerful, for one thing. They didn’t have the same abilities as I did, like being able to walk in the sun or move things with my mind.

But they were like my children, and I was so grateful to be around others like me that I continued to create new family members.

Throughout the centuries, I’ve run across some of Sorina’s descendants and each one of the women have tried to kill me and my family. We call them vampire hunters and do our best to get rid of them before they even know we’re around.

Walking into my chamber, I look around at the huge room and all the things I’ve collected over the centuries. Museums would kill to get a hold of some of my treasures and every once in a while I’ll make an anonymous donation. Usually when I tire of something or want to make room for another item.

Besides the huge four-poster bed that sits on a tall wooden block, there’s a large fireplace with two cozy seats sitting in front of it, a bar complete with every kind of liquor imaginable, a walk-in closet, and a bathroom.

I walk into the bathroom and turn the facets on in the shower, then strip out of my clothes. It only takes a couple of seconds to get to the right temperature, then I climb inside and let the four shower heads beam water at me from every direction.

After my shower, I dress in a royal blue silk robe and walk into my chamber. I’m just stoking the fire in the fireplace when there’s a knock at my door.

“Enter,” I call out, not bothering to look in that direction.

“Sire, we’ve found another one.”

I turn at those words and look at Jonathan, one of my scribes and my personal assistant. I raise a dark eyebrow in question.

“Another vampire hunter,” he qualifies.