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He used the dagger to slice the rodent’s underbelly. He squeezed. Blood and entrails oozed over
his fingers. He placed the bloody rat close to his nose and mouth. He sniffed the warm blood.
Two long fangs grew from his gums.
“I will not disgust you by feeding,” he said and tossed the rat away. His fangs slowly
retracted.
“You were bitten?”
“No. I am an Azulite vampire. I drank azulin, of my own free will… azulin from
Sygnosis.”
“You know that vile bitch?”
“She would not recognize me as an adult. I was only fifteen when she enthralled me.”
“But why?”
“I was born in the year 554 by your reckoning.”
“This cannot be!” she said.
“I am two thousand, one hundred and forty-five years old. My birth name is Belshazzar.
My father’s name was Nabonidus. He was the last ruler of Babylon before it fell to Cyrus the
Great, king of Persia, in the Battle of Opis in 539. I was mortally wounded in that battle.”
“At fifteen?” she asked.
“Times were dire. I wanted to fight for my nation. Sygnosis was my father’s concubine. Or
more accurately, he was hers. It was her azulin that saved my life.”
“You mean that prevented you from dying a natural death?”
“Yes. I was in Prince Omar’s circumstance.”
“Are you the Undead? The Living Dead?”
“My queen—”
“Are you dead?” she shouted.
“No. But I am not alive as you know it. I can touch but I cannot feel. I can eat but I cannot
taste. My hearing is beyond that of humans, but the only thing I can smell . . . is blood . . . in the
air. This is the vampire’s survival gift and curse. I must consume living blood. Without it I will
