Chapter 4. A dream, a nightmare and a memory.

Her eyes closed and she slept… deeply… 

In her dream, the image of a strange place resurfaced like a movie. A desert, vast as a sea, warm and glowing as fire.

She looked at the sand extending everywhere, but her gaze soon fixed on one point, in the distance, on the horizon. From the top of a pyramid, she could see the sun.

A smile was drawn on her face with such happiness as if it was the first time she saw that magnificent light in many years.

"Keilan! Keilan!" She started shouting something, a name, and from behind her a man appeared. 

He hugged her from the back, kissed her on the cheek, and smiled. It was as if he had done it several times. They both watched the sun rise majestically. 

However, after many hours and minutes, the frosty night acclaimed the sky as its own. The moon was the only light in their eyes and the stars their witnesses.

The couple returned to take refuge inside the pyramid, inside a luxurious bedroom with several curtains hanging on the walls. Symbols of their kingdom and reign. 

"Keilan, my husband… my husband…" She smiled at him and let him take off her clothes. 

"Eva… my wife…"

They made love until exhaustion. But she didn't have enough of feeling him, fangs like daggers appeared from her mouth. From her eyes, a bright red color emerged like fire.

He wasn't afraid, instead, he seemed happier to see her like this. Disheveled in his arms, passionate and constantly seeking his love. 

From his neck, he let her take the blood she needed. The sweet moan of his satisfied wife in her mouth pleased him as he moved her waist to fill the need in her womb.

"Eva..." she heard him say. "Eva… my love, my wife, don't ever leave me."

Eva looked into his eyes, blue as sapphires, deep as the ocean and sky combined. 

"I won't, I promise…" 

She kissed his eyelids and looked at him deeply. Something in that blue light, something important showed inside. 

That blue suddenly enveloped her body, like a fierce whirlwind. 

"Keilan!"

Eva woke up with blurry eyes. She was still in the shower, the cold water was hitting her face and body like droplets of heavy rain. She coughed a few times hugging her body as she trembled as stared at her reflection in the water. For a second, she saw red eyes. 

"I… mu…must be… crazy," she said, stuttering in between purple lips. Then she rubbed her eyes to see again.

Moonlight illuminated the bathroom through the misted window. 

"What... what was that?" looked to each side, water had flooded the entire bathroom floor. Somehow she felt a shadow moving behind her. It made her feel chills in her spine. 

She got up slowly and closed the water faucet. Then she looked around again. 

Nothing. She stayed there… shivering for a second. Nothing… there was nothing there. 

'Sigh… I must be going crazy,' she walked outside, however, her body felt heavy as if she was carrying hundreds of extra pounds in her back and legs.

With each step, she felt her throat drying as if a strange burst of fire. 

"Thirsty." 

She pressed her hands on the wall, as she took deep breaths. The cold was leaving her body quickly. 

And despite the freezing water and cold night, there was a strange warmth coming building inside her, causing the water to evaporate on her skin.

She took off the rest of her clothes, her dirty sneakers, the worn-out pants with blood stains on her knees, and the oversized soaked sweatshirt that barely covered her slim and weak body from the cold.

Thus, with nothing on her, she fell on the bed and lost consciousness.

Darkness engulfed the room again, moonlight illuminated her slowly changing physique, from her bones and limbs to her face. On her belly a blue mark of an ax and a stake engulfed by a creature with long fangs and gigantic wings emerged. 

Night outside stayed the same, silence in the mansion and darkness inside. 

***

Meanwhile…

In another building, so tall that it seemed to live in a different plane away from the mortals on the ground, Kian Hart awoke. Cold sweat ran over his forehead and neck. 

A nightmare had made him tremble at night. He had barely fallen asleep when the vision of a beautiful woman with red eyes and about to die stalked him.

He wanted to do something for her, but he couldn't move, he could only watch her heartbreaking death, her pain, and the sadness of her desperate cries. 

She asked him why he didn't help her, why he betrayed her.

He wanted to tell her it wasn't him… but she left. Some men took her.

"Who...?" From his beautiful blue eyes, tears flowed. "Who is she?"

***

Knock… Knock…

Eva woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door. It pounded in her ears like drums. But not only that, the entire world had become noisier. 

The sound of the water drops, the creaking wood, even outside her room, in the tree branches, the flying of the birds, the leaves dropping, and the movement of the wind. Soft but amplified. 

Every tiny noise echoed in her mind like huge bells announcing the new day. She could hear everything raised several levels Even a breath and a cough.

"What is going on?" she asked as she could only cover her ears to hide from the noise. 

"Hey! Wake up! Mrs. Roberts wants to see you now!" the voice of a woman echoed in the room.

She pressed her ears harder, "fuck... it hurts..."

"Did you hear me?! Get down now!"

Eve ignored the woman, she felt dizzy and wanted to vomit. The feeling was overwhelming. 

She stood up and ran to the bathroom. The water on the ground made her slip but she managed to hold the sink. Two seconds later she vomited what little she had in her stomach.

When she finished, she could feel her heart beating harder and faster. But her lungs were not trapping enough air. It was suffocating and painful in her chest. 

She rose slightly, washed her face and mouth, and then looked at her reflection in the mirror. But the image of that woman almost made her fall to the ground in fright. The woman couldn't be her.

"What the…" She touched her hair, which wasn't that long the night before, in a few hours it had grown at least an inch. It even felt like silk, soft and straight. 

Her vision was perfect, without the need for glasses, and her skin which looked dry before, was now much paler, almost like a ghost but soft and smooth. 

But that was not all, there was something else in her mouth, in her teeth, in her hands, arms, her entire body. A force that could break things with the pressure of one finger. And a thirst that drove her wild.

"Did you hear me, idiot?! I don't care that you call yourself the mistress of this house, you're a nobody... now open the damn door once and for all."

"A nobody?" Eva listened to the woman's words. The sound of that loud and piercing voice bothered her, but the smell... that smell that was covered by a layer of skin, muscle, maybe bones too. There, flowing in the veins, blood.

She headed for the door regardless of her nudity. In those moments, instinct had already given way to the beast within her. She had to quench it, she had to fill it.

She opened the door and the woman dressed in a blue maid uniform looked at her in surprise. "You...!"

She didn't let her finish her sentence, she didn't let her scream or call for help. 

Now the stupid maid was a victim. Eva took her by the neck with one hand and dragged her into the room. There, she left her breathless, unable to fight. While that woman's eyes looked at her with terror. 

Eva's eyes, red as the flames of fire, wrapped her in pure suffering.

She wanted to say something, she wanted to beg and apologize, she wanted to scream for someone to help her, but a pair of fangs had already entered her skin. They sucked her blood, drop by drop.

Eva left her alone after the blood trickled down her throat until she satisfied her thirst until felt her skin come to life again. So warm, so delicious. It was just as it should be. That's how it felt.

At last, she remembered… everything.