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Athanasia

He ponders upon his nature,
No longer a mere mortal man,
The change in him so severe,
Was he but a pawn in another’s master plan?
He had little control of his desires,
Or any of those under his command,
They accosted an innocent stranger,
Their lust for blood overriding his demands.

All around the screams surround her
Like a banshee in dismay,
Ebbing and flowing like a wave in a flood,
The vampires encircle their prey.
Blood now scented in the air,
A signal to the brood to come to hunt;
The streets were painted crimson that night,
Not a person passed by they did not confront.

In despair of the needless bloodshed,
I stepped in to influence their minds.
Seven hundred years had I walked on this earth,
My experience was needed by my kind.
Their brood was large, much terror had they caused,
Wanton chaos was not the way,
Some restraint they needed to show,
Lest shortly they would run out of prey.

All around the vampires jeered,
Convinced that my experience was not required,
To the fore stepped their fearsome chief,
“What is your name?” he enquired.
I invoked my dreaded name, “Athanasia”,
The brood looked around as if surprised,
In the presence of such legendary kin,
They knew one wrong move would spell their demise.

Their leader raised one maleficent brow,
Bemused to find his status under threat,
He ordered one of his lowly minions
To attempt to defeat me, and take me as a pet;
After making short work of the whelp,
The look their leader gave me was grave,
I had broken the mind of his subservient peon,
To test himself against my skills he did crave.
He moved as a blur, quicker than sin,
Assaulting me from three directions at once,
I barely managed to move out of the way,
But he continued to strike sans reponse.
Cannily using his own momentum
As a pivot with which to counter-attack,
I sent him careening into the air,
Convinced that he would land with a crack.

Landing softly with both feet on the ground,
He looked into my eyes with respect.
Offering to me the benefit of truce,
I accept but remain circumspect.
More powerful than I ever imagined,
He took me on as his right hand,
With the aim of resurrecting our glorious kind,
We set out to cement his command…

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