Chapter 2.

Lillith, no ordinary woman, mostly because by definition, she wasn’t a woman. The first wife of Adam, and was created equal to him. Cast out of Eden because of her black heart. It was many years after this that Caine was also banished by God, for the murder of his brother, and cursed to wander the earth for all eternity unable to eat or drink from the land. Lillith found him in the desert, suffering from a terrible hunger and thirst. She gave comfort to him and offered herself to quench his undying thirst. Caine fed from her blood, his soul awakening to the new powers that she had given him. They became the first vampires and were unstoppable. But, of course, this could not be allowed, not by nature and not by God. And so, they were cursed further, and made to flee the dawn, clinging to the darkness for all eternity. Caine’s arrogance would not allow him to beg God for forgiveness. And for this the price was heavy. No man could kill either one of them. Their souls would not be welcome to enter either the gates of heaven or be thrown into the fiery pits of hell.

They had been together for four thousand years roaming the earth feasting on God’s children like some kind of plague surrounded by darkness. They made their own children in Isaac and Sophia, the first of many. Then one night Lillith did not return from the hunt to escape the dawn. She had disappeared without a trace. Caine searched for her but after a hundred years had passed, still unable to find her anywhere, her very presence vanished too. She was lost to him. Desperate he went to the Seer, Arianne who told him that Lillith’s soul had been taken and her body destroyed. She told him that an order of Holy Crusaders had been given a talisman possessing great power. It had been forged in heaven by three angels and their names inscribed on it, Senoy, Sansenoy and Semangelof. The order used the talisman to lay her soul to sleep, forgetting who she truly was, and trapping her within a human body. As her soul could not leave this world it would be forced to roam the earth moving from one vessel to the next. She gave him hope, that if the talisman were destroyed, her soul would awaken and she would be returned. Caine vowed that he would search for her, even if it took until the end of time. Sophia and Isaac promised that they would stay with him and help him in his search.

Caine had been to see Arianne twenty years previous to this night to ask her for guidance in finding Lillith. She told him to seek her in the city, to look for a woman that shared his father’s name, a woman with an insatiable curiosity. He tried, but such a woman could not be found, if indeed such a woman existed.

Arianne was an ancient being, it’s not known the exact details of her origin but, she was demonic for sure. Her beauty was so exquisite that no man could deny her. She had skin like polished alabaster and the severity of her long black hair made her skin appear luminescent against it. Her eyes were a creamy jade green, deep-set, trimmed with dark sweeping eyelashes and crowned with perfectly arched eyebrows. She had angular cheekbones and soft luscious lips, a perfect Cupid’s bow with a full bottom lip. She had long legs, a fine slender body and ample breasts, curves in all the right places. She was in essence perfect. Specifically designed for the temptation of man, even Lucifer himself had coveted her. He wanted her to be his bride and tried to seduce her but she refused him. In his fury, he cast her from hell to dwell on the earth. She had the gift of sight, but Lucifer’s wrath had added that for every vision she had, her true age would be revealed. Her beauty would whither. For every question she answered the person asking would have to bring an offering as payment. She had to ingest the heart, brain and eyes of a pure, young girl to maintain her beauty. And in this dying age of innocence, the pure virginal ones were harder to come by.

Caine was in the village searching for the perfect victim. He knew what he was looking for. He just needed to find it. And then by chance, he heard a voice. A young girl bringing in laundry from the washing line at the bottom of a large garden, it was a good distance from the house. No one would hear her scream, and even if they did it would all be over by the time anyone got near. She was about seventeen years old, with a slim build. The kind of girl any boy would walk past and think that they weren’t good enough. Her innocence was alluring, he caught her scent in the crisp autumn breeze. She was dressed in light blue jeans and a green cardigan. She had long brown hair and the creamiest coloured skin, she was very pretty indeed. She was perfect. Oblivious to her predator, the girl stood in the back garden taking the clothes off the line, carefully folding each item before putting it into the basket. As she reached for the final peg, he slipped in behind her and caught her hand. The shock of this intruder made her jump, her heart thumping loudly.

“Here let me help you.” Caine offered smoothly, so self-assured. She felt flushed at this stranger so close to her. “I didn’t mean to startle you.” He handed her the peg and she took it, slowly backing away.

“Thanks, for the offer, but really, I’m ok. I… I’d better get these clothes inside.” Her voice was shaky, betrayed by her nerves. He smiled, knowing the powerful effect he had on her. She turned to lift the basket from the ground, Caine swiftly moved in behind her causing her to drop the basket, laundry spilling out over the path. He wrapped his arm around her waist. “I promise, this will only take a moment. It’ll be over before you know it.” His voice rasped in her ear. Fear spread throughout her limbs, and all manner of terrible thoughts raged through her head, kidnapping, rape, and even murder. Well, the murder thought was correct. He dragged her a little further down the garden, she was too petrified to do anything let alone scream.

“Please don’t…” were the only sounds she could force passed her lips and out into the air. Caine nuzzled into her neck, breathing in deeply her sweet-scented hair. He brushed the hair aside and she could feel the iciness of his breath on her skin. He held her tight to him, arm still fastened around her waist. Paralysed, she couldn’t move even if she wanted to.

“Shh… just relax, remember my promise.” He whispered in her ear.

He couldn’t hold off the kill any longer, her fear made her scent all the more intoxicating and he ran the risk of losing control. It was very hard to resist biting into the neck of someone as sweet as this. He was beginning to imagine what she would taste like.

No, he had to do this now. He pulled out a knife and held the blade to her throat. She could feel the sharp metal biting into her tender flesh. She managed a short scream just before he dragged the blade across her throat cutting through the blood vessels. The blood sprayed and splashed on the clean white sheets of the laundry basket. He watched as her blood poured out of the wound on her neck and all down the soft Angora cardigan. She choked; her body went limp and fell against him like a marionette whose strings had been cut. Job done and time was ticking.

It wasn’t long before he returned to the cabin, still reasonably early. Inside Sophia and Isaac had finished their ‘fooling around’. The girl’s organs had to be removed. Caine hated it. Whilst he loved the kill, he hated taking a body apart. He felt an odd sense of pain at damaging the pretty packaging. But he needed what was inside her, and there was no other way. Caine knew that Sophia would have no problem with this, dismembering was her speciality. Sophia always reminded him of one of those kids who liked to catch spiders, pulling their legs off before sticking pins in them or killing them in some other cruel fashion. Caine left the body outside for her and went in to collect the jars for the necessary pieces. They were going to see Arianne that night, so, there wasn’t a moment to spare.

Sophia went outside to the body, bending down to examine the dead girl lying on the grass before ripping her cardigan open. She tore the blood-soaked vest the girl was wearing so that her chest was exposed. Tracing a line down the girl’s ribcage to where her heart would be, she raised her arm and plunged her hand through the chest wall grasping the silenced heart, and yanking it clean out. She placed it carefully into the first jar. The next was a tricky one, the girl’s brain. It’s not that easy to crack someone’s head open without doing damage to its contents but Sophia was skilled at this. Cracking the skull like a coconut she removed the brain and place it in the second jar delicately. The last things they needed were her eyes. Sticking her hand into the empty cavity of the girl’s head, she found the eyes and poked them from their sockets, then carefully placed them in the last jar. All finished, she went inside to clean up. Caine packed the jars into a chest so that they could be transported. It was time for this deadly trio to leave.