Chapter 6
As the years passed, I began to forget what the sun looks like. Sometimes I would gaze upon a painting and try to remember, but that memory became harder to recall. The night was my day, the moon was my sun, and my cousin was my world. We arrived in Venice only a few years after Debra embraced me into darkness. Romania, she said, was no place for former Queens. She chose Venice, in her words, because it was the link between Asia and Europe. It was the center of trade and wealth, and that's where we belonged. I never dared to mention the coincidence that it was a Venetian Princess who married her former King, but the word revenge never escaped Queen Debra's lips.
The city was full of life, busy with commerce, and filled with gentlemen of many cultures. There were always ships in port, and many traders who looked to the streets of Venice to supply nightly distractions and entertainment. It was so common for sailors to disappear that nobody questioned it. The general assumption was they chose to remain in the watery city, were too incapable of finding their way back to the docks, or met some untimely demise. My cousin and I were part of that demise. We needed to live, so we needed to feed. The horrors I felt at the beginning faded in time. Eventually it was no different than slaughtering the cow to put beef upon the table.
The men visiting Venice had certain charms. What my Queen did with her nightly companions I never asked, but I knew her standards were above the low born of seafaring vessels. To tempt them to a room was easy. To subdue them was easier. Even the strongest of the male race seemed like babes in comparison to the strength my cousin and I had obtained. It was in our rooms we would feed. The bodies found their way into the ocean, and the coins on the corpses maintained our rooms and supplied fresh wardrobes. I remember one particular night a traveler from Romania arrived in the city. I asked, as I always asked, for news of my former husband. The man said he had lived well, remarried, and bore seven children. He had died that summer past. That's when I began wearing black like every widow should. It was a month later I allowed myself to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh with another man. My Queen had always reminded me, we have all of eternity to repent for our sins.
My sister Debra and I, as we began referring to ourselves as, lived for more than five of our human lifetimes in Venice. One night, Queen Debra informed me she wished to leave the city. News of a new world was spreading across Europe, and gold was pouring into Spain. Tales of Conquistadors sparked the imagination, and Debra saw hope for a new life. It took us two months traveling by night, taking time to feed, but we finally arrived in our new home...Seville. To my surprise, we were not the only vampires to inhabit the city. They all bowed to one with royal blood, and they called my cousin Queen.
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