text: Year 30
  
  "Well of course there are vampire hunters running around in Holgard now. I told you that you probably needed to start showing a bit of restraint now that the religious factions aren't killing each other anymore." Isabella remarks.
  "You said that Holgard was a perfect spot for me to hunt due to all the crime and violence!" you reply.
  "Yeah, but still within reason. I mean from some of the tales you've told me in the past, it sounds like you just leave a killing field in your wake half the time. As I said, you probably were only getting away with it due to the religious faction war, but now that that's over with, they're on to you. Look, you had your fun, but it's probably time to rein it in a bit anyway. You had like what five years? Honestly, I probably gave you your freedom a bit too quickly."
  "So what, are you cracking the whip on me now?"
  "No, but I will say that I'm fond of you enough that I would LIKE you to still be around for a long time to come. You might think a few vampire hunters are no problem, but I imagine they aren't the only ones hunting you. I mean you were taking advantage of the religious faction war, I have to believe that some of them groups aren't vampire friendly either. Wasn't your ex a Dornan? Pretty sure those wizard priests might have discovered a vampire operating in the city by now and I'm not even counting the fanatical Joachimites you told me about."
  "So what are you saying exactly?"
  "I'm saying that maybe you should give Holgard a break for awhile if you can't restrain yourself. Go find another hunting ground that isn't going to attract attention. I'm sure there are little isolated towns and villages further east of here. I'm sure there are probably bandits preying upon them as well, so you've got a wide selections to choose from."
  
  You somewhat frown at that suggestion.
  
  "If I'm going to skulk about a village luring peasants to their doom, I might as well be grocery shopping for you in Dert." You say.
  "Well I dunno, go wipe out an entire hamlet then, I don't care. Just don't be a dumb ass and leave any witnesses. Because I'm going to tell you this as well, it's one thing if you're going to insist on playing with your immortality, but it's quite another if you start fucking with mine. If your actions end up causing a group of adventurers to come barging down here in the middle of the day, waking up my beauty sleep, you are going to wish you'd been staked and beheaded after I get done with you. Understand?" Isabella says with a calm threatening tone that is enough to unnerve even you.
  "Yes...dear." You meekly utter.
  
  Isabella gives you a stern look and then leaves you to your own devices.
  
  Isabella may not have any direct power over you, but she's still powerful enough to crush you if she wanted to. You don't actually think she'd kill you, but you don't doubt that she wouldn't make your unlife miserable for a very long time.
  
  If you weren't so grateful for everything she's done for you, you might be inclined to leave and not return. However in the grand scheme of things you're fairly happy with her so there isn't much incentive to do so.
  
  She's usually right anyway. Might be time to settle down a bit. Mass slaughter is starting to lose its appeal anyway. Well not ALL its appeal, but maybe you should change it up, especially if you want to go back to Holgard one day.
  
  For the first few weeks, you don't go to Holgard and instead wander further to the east a bit. Honestly, you've never traveled in that direction for any extended length of time save for when you released Spikey back into the wild. That was slightly harder than you thought it would be, but at least it was better than Isabella killing him.
  
  You sort of wonder if you'll run into him, but you don't, who knows where he is now. (You hope he's happily eating people wherever he is though)
  
  You do know is if you go far enough you'll reach the borders of the Delantium Kingdom. Of course that's still quite the ways even with your speed and you aren't that adventurous.
  
  What you do find are a few small isolated villages. Bigger than Dert and nearly the size of the your old home of Teckleville. Same sort of people too, funny how no matter where you go, places like this are the same everywhere.
  
  You skulk around these minor villages, luring an unsuspecting peasant or two for food, but it's dull since it's basically like when you do it back in Dert.
  
  You encounter nomads, brigands, and raider types of various races. Again, those are more fun since you can let loose a bit more, but a lot of these tend to be on the non-human side and at this point you've acquired more of a taste for human blood as opposed to greenskin or some of the other savage races you've come across.
  
  Upon your return on these daily travels, Isabella almost never asks you what you were up to. She doesn't seem to care as long as you aren't bringing trouble to her crypt. Sometimes you mention what you've been up to and she listens, and sometimes asking basic questions back, nothing more though.
  
  A few months pass, and you're about ready to go back to Holgard just to see if things have died down there a bit, but you decide to stick it out a little while longer and continue doing what you're doing.
  
  You head to Maldito, which is one of the more remote villages, even compared to most on your list. When you get within sight of it however, you're surprised.
  
  The entire village is in flames. You can hear screaming and yelling still coming from the place and the stench of blood and death is thick. You're getting hungry just thinking about it.
  
  You cautiously move towards the village and find where the majority of the voices are coming from. A mixed group of rough looking orcs, gnolls, and even a few hobgoblins are currently lording it over the remaining peasants they haven't killed.
  
  Currently a couple of the women are being raped and they're torturing the shit out of several of the men. Despite the large amount of savage races, a human seems to be the leader. Figures.
  
  He is addressing the peasants who are focused on him despite all the horror around them.
  
  "Know that you lot brought this on yourselves! All you had to do is provide food, basic goods and some time with your daughters, sisters and wives on a regular basis and this shithole of a town would be spared Green Eye's wrath. Instead you've been hiring mercenaries to cut down our men for weeks! NOW you have to pay!" the human bandit says.
  "NO! I swear it! We've done no such thing! We would nev..."
  "SILENCE!" the human bandit snaps interrupting the older peasant trying to beg for mercy.
  
  The human leader soon picks the old man up off the ground and stabs him in the throat before tossing him back on the floor.
  
  "I don't actually give a shit if it WAS you or not! One of the villages in this area did, and when they get the message of what we're doing to your village, they'll fall in line, or they're going to suffer the same fate! Rape everyone in every fucking orifice, kill them all and shove their dismembered corpses on big fucking spiked sticks."
  
  Grim stuff.
  
  The odd thing is you actually feel slightly sorry for these pitiful peasants since you probably inadvertently caused this. You were slaughtering so many bandits over last couple of months, you didn't think that they were actually united any way. You also didn't think that these bandit types would jump to the conclusions that the villagers were behind it. Though you suppose it makes sense that they would.
  
  After years of just ruthlessly drinking the living and seeing them as nothing more than blood bags, it seems odd that you would feel protective of them for some reason.
  
  Maybe, this is how Isabella feels about Dert in some ways. The people in that village are all food to her, but they're hers and she doesn't want anyone else fucking with them. You guess you've developed a similar attachment. Who knew?
  
  Yeah, you're not going to let bottom-feeding scum throw away perfectly good food...
  
  You enter the village, you don't even try to hide. You break the neck of three hobgoblins and put your fist through an orc before anyone even mounts an attack.
  
  "Shit! Get your dick outta that bitch, can't you see we're being attacked?!" the human bandit shouts.
  
  The gnolls clumsily attempt to chop you with their long axes, but its all too easy to avoid their blows and shatter their spines, you quickly shut their dog like howls up by stomping their heads into mush.
  
  The remaining bandits fair no better against you.
  
  "He's too fucking fast! He's not human! He's not..." are the last words of a half orc before you finish him off, along with his buddies.
  
  Soon it's only the human bandit leader left and to his credit; he hasn't run off (like some of the hobgoblins tried to do)
  
  "Let me guess...vampire?"
  
  You nod silently.
  
  "Shit...I had a feeling it wasn't just mercenaries after seeing the carnage on a couple of those sites. So are..."
  
  You're done entertaining this lesser form, you rush forward and rip out his throat mid sentence. You drink his blood and throw his corpse next to the body of the old man he had just killed not a few moments before.
  
  Meanwhile the peasants that the bandits rounded up haven't even run. They've all just huddled together watching you, probably with just as much fear as they had before you arrived.
  
  You look upon them and they have never looked more like the herd of sheep they truly are. They are prey and always will be in their current form.
  
  You have a mind to finish them all off, until one brave one approaches on his hands and knees.
  
  "You...you have saved us!" he shouts.
  "Saved you? You shortsighted sheep, I only saved you because these assholes were killing off my livestock and I hate to waste food. I've been feeding on you lot for months now. Didn't you even notice how some of you had gone missing?" you say.
  "We...we assumed perhaps the bandits had taken some of us in the middle of the night. But please, spare us your unholy wrath and we will worship you, my dark lord!"
  
  Well this has turned interesting...
  
  "Worship you say? What exactly are you proposing?" you ask.
  "Yes, we...we can't defend ourselves against Green Eye's bandits and now that you've killed this group, he's just going to send more to finish us off. You could defend us and in exchange we could provide...what you need...." The man says.
  "I need blood you do know that right?"
  "Yes, but if it means just a few of us dying as opposed to all of us dying then it will be worth it. Please, I beg you. Whatever you wish, we will provide."
  
  This could be just the thing to break up the monotony. It's also perfect due to the remoteness of it all. You'd have people willing to give themselves to you, and the bandits you can just massacre as usual.
  
  Of course doing something like this might be slightly more involved than you'd prefer. You can also imagine that it probably wouldn't be as cut and dry as you're going to want it to be.
  
  Lot of factors still at play and you question if you want the headache.
  
  > just kill them all and be done with it
  As much as the idea of ruling over this miserable lot like a king appeals to you on some level, the fact is you don't really want to be bothered micromanaging. You imagine it's why Isabella doesn't bother directly controlling Dert. It's much simpler for her to just let them live their own lives and only intervene when absolutely necessary.
  
  Would have been nice to have killed the bandits before they fucked up the village, since then the peasants wouldn't have known about you. Now that they do, you can't very well just let them live. One of them would surely blab at one of the other villages and the whole point of this, was to lay low in the first place.
  
  "Rise." You tell the man groveling before you.
  
  He does so slowly before you.
  
  "Your terms..." you start to say.
  "Yes?" he asks with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
  
  You grab him by the throat and break his neck with ease. The light goes out of his eyes and he slumps to the ground.
  
  "Are not acceptable." You add.
  
  The rest of the peasants are paralyzed with fear or crying. Most of the crying comes from the children though. This gives you an idea.
  
  "Listen up sheep! Do not attempt to escape, I guarantee you will not make it. I'm fast and strong enough to kill and catch everyone here! Your lives are forfeit this night. If I had not come here, the bandits would have finished you off. You have nobody to blame but yourselves for being so weak. However, I have a counter proposal to make this necessary deed at least somewhat less horrific."
  
  You stare at the peasants for a bit, making sure you've got their full attention, though they really aren't going anywhere at this point. Actually you aren't sure if they ALL decided to run and scatter if you actually would be able to catch and kill all of them, but so far they're so scared they believe anything you say.
  
  "Provide no resistance, and I will make your deaths quick. Also, some of you have children. I will spare the children and take them away from here so they won't be defenseless against the bandits or the surrounding wilderness. This is the best offer you're going to get."
  "How do we know you're telling the truth and that you'll not harm the children?" one asks.
  "You don't. But think of it this way, resist me and I'll make sure the children die FIRST before your eyes. Comply and at worst you can die wondering if I kept my word."
  
  That certainly got most of their attention. In typical fashion, most of the parents are more than willing to sacrifice themselves for their children. Even some of the ones who don't have any are compliant.
  
  Amusingly some beg if you can turn them into a vampire instead. You respond that none of them are worthy of "the gift." You of course aren't going to tell the truth that you can't make any of them into vampires if you wanted to anyway, since Isabella has explained that you have to be much older than you currently are before you could even attempt it. You might be able to make them into ghouls at best, but from what Isabella has told you about ghouls, you'd rather not have such disgusting creatures fawning all over you all the time either.
  
  Parents attempt to calm their children, but it's a lost cause, most of them are too upset. You push the parents aside and have them group the children together. You speak in a calming voice to them all. It's hard to focus on all of them like this, but fortunately children seem to be more susceptible to vampiric suggestion.
  
  Soon, the children are in a dazed like condition.
  
  "See? Now they won't even experience the horror of watching me kill you all. Shall we begin?"
  
  Without another word, you unleash terrible violence upon the peasants. Despite their promise to comply, most of them try to run anyway. Human instinct you suppose. Though it doesn't matter much since they stupidly don't scatter very far you easily catch the lot that do run anyway.
  
  Others do thankfully comply. Some of these are the parents who are tearfully spending their last moments with their children (even if they are currently hypnotized).
  
  After you finish off the last mewling mother and drink her dry, you turn your attention to the children who are thankfully still under your suggestion.
  
  "Okay then, let's go children, we've got a lot of ground to cover and unfortunately you lot don't run as fast as me...hmm. Maybe that cart will do..."
  
  You load all the children onto an undamaged cart and push it as fast as you can. It's slower than if you were by yourself, but then its also faster than if they all had to follow you on foot.
  
  Difficulty comes when you reach the forest since you have to start maneuvering between trees, eventually you have to stop, but it's not too bad since you're almost at your destination anyway.
  
  "Come on kids, we're running from here."
  
  It's a tedious task of herding these children and having to slow down for them, but eventually you reach your destination. Just in time too since it's almost dawn. You're just glad you haven't attracted any unwanted attention during this whole thing.
  
  You make your way down the steps and probably due to all the footsteps, Isabella comes to meet you. She looks like she was prepared for a fight too.
  
  "What the hell?! With all the footsteps I heard, I thought it was some group of hunters or something!" Isabella remarks.
  "Well this should make you a bit happier." You answer and present the children behind you.
  "What's all this then? Children? Where did you get them from? Not Dert I hope."
  "No, not from Dert, not from Holgard either. They're from a place that actually no longer exists."
  "Did you finally lose control and wipe out an entire village? So much for laying low."
  "No I only wiped out half of one. Bandits already fucked up the place before I even got there. Killed them and the remaining villagers. The only witnesses are these children, which I thoughtfully brought home to you."
  "Really? Just for me huh?"
  "Well I know you really like child blood and it isn't like I'm going to have the patience to stretch the little bastards out like you do, so they're all yours."
  
  Isabella is very happy with you right now, she embraces you lovingly and gives you a playful bite which you return.
  
  "Mmm, I knew I picked you for a reason..."
  "Just one request though. Could you keep the kids hypnotized? I mean I know you tend to do that with your food anyway, but uh, I sort of promised that no harm would come to them."
  "What? What deal is this? I thought you said you didn't leave anyone alive."
  "I didn't, and I mean officially I'm NOT harming the kids since I'm giving them to you, but... I dunno...I'd feel a little less like a liar if the kids don't feel any pain while you drink their blood."
  
  Isabella smiles a bit at your odd sense of "morality."
  
  "Aww, that is so adorable. You have a twisted code of honor. Very well, but you didn't really need to worry about it anyway, last thing I need to hear are children caterwauling throughout my crypt. I know some vampires love to hear their lunch beg and scream and claim it makes the blood taste better. Not me. I prefer my food to just be silent so I can eat in peace. In any case, let me get these lovelies locked up and I'll be meeting you in the bedroom. I hope you aren't too tired from your earlier actions, because I suggest you prepare yourself."
  
  Whether you were tired or not, wouldn't make any difference to you anyway.
  
  You make your way to the bedroom thinking that while you might not be a king over some groveling peasants, you'll certainly be king in here and that's a whole lot more fun.
  
  When Isabella comes to the bedroom, she stands in the doorway just staring at you for a moment. At first you think she's just taking in all your manliness, but then she beckons you off the bed.
  
  "You come with me, I got something else in mind. Something special...but don't worry we'll still get to that."
  
  You do so and soon realize that she's taking you to her garden. She's NEVER done that.
  
  When you enter, the garden is quite sizeable and bathed in a glowing blue light. You always knew there was a light source in there due to the glow you could see whenever Isabella exited it, but now you know it comes from some sort of luminescent fungus that is all over the walls and ceiling.
  
  "It's not sunlight, but it works well enough. Come walk with me." Isabella says and takes your hand to enter her garden.
  
  The garden is unsurprisingly very well cared for. There are all sorts of flowers, though you've never been an expert on such matters, but you're fairly certain there are types of plants here that don't normally grow in this environment. You weren't aware there was a small reservoir of water here either, almost like a pond, but then you imagine that would make having a garden here a lot easier with a water source.
  
  Isabella doesn't say anything and just takes you through the garden. She begins pointing to the various plants and giving small histories of them. She also starts to tell you about her own memories of when she first saw these various plants and flowers.
  
  It becomes a very intimate history of her life and who she is. It's actually all very enlightening mainly because even after all these years you STILL didn't know much about her past.
  
  All these years you believed her to be some sort of royalty. Perhaps even a princess of some sort of long lost Empire. But no, her beginnings are actually very humble, possibly even more humble than your own.
  
  She was a simple peasant girl that worked in a flower shop. Then one night she caught the eye of a vampire who was of minor royalty (Though trying very hard to keep it secret from the general public). He revealed his true nature immediately to her, but insisted that he had no intention on hurting her.
  
  Isabella explains that she at first complied with him out of fear, but eventually she didn't mind spending time with him. She says she doesn't know if it was because he was working his dark charms on her, or that she was young and foolish, but she said whatever the reason, she did come to love him.
  
  She says she never really knew why he chose her. She suspects her looks helped initially, but it wasn't like she was special in that regard. He could have easily had any upper class lady, but then perhaps he knew that marrying one of them would have drawn more attention to himself while marrying a lower class girl might just be grateful for the uplifted standing and if he had to silence her, well who would care?
  
  Still, marrying someone of such lowly birth raised eyebrows anyway. Didn't take long before everything started to fall apart and those that would seek to harm him started focusing on various eccentricities, oddities and other things that caused people to start to wonder.
  
  For a time, Isabella mostly stayed on his castle grounds spending much of her time in the gardens. She said it was the only place that put her at ease since she knew even with as much power as her husband had, there would be no way he could fight all the forces gathering against him.
  
  Of course he wouldn't leave either. He would fight and die. Isabella was prepared to die with him, but he realized that none of this would be her concern if he hadn't dragged her into this life in the first place.
  
  So he did the only thing he could think of to save her, he gave her the gift of immortality and told her to live her life as she saw fit. She didn't want to leave at first, but he insisted and perhaps to some degree Isabella did love her own life more than him.
  
  Isabella left in the middle of the night, just before the siege of his castle started. A few months later she had heard that he had died and they had a priest of Joachim dowse his burnt corpse in holy water after removing his head.
  
  Isabella goes on about a few other bits of her life, but her origins are what are most fascinating. Makes you wonder why now all of a sudden she's decided to tell you.
  
  "Because I'm finally comfortable with you. Sure, you mess up every now and then, but ultimately you listen and do something special for me. I know living with me hasn't been easy because you probably were always wondering where exactly you stood with me. Well tonight I revealed my soul to you...so to speak. You must understand that this was very difficult for me. I've tried this before, and it's never ended well." Isabella says.
  "Well, I guess you have probably had a very eventful past." You reply.
  "You only know a minor bit of it, but enough about the past, I want to embrace the future. Embrace me here in the garden, in the soil and amongst the plants. Maybe we're dead, but I want to make love with life surrounding us."
  
  Rather poetic. You can't say all this doesn't emotionally move you somewhat.
  
  You and Isabella proceed to be intimate in the garden and it's definitely the most positive experience you've ever had.
  
  You might have thought in the past that you were in love before, but now you truly know it.
  
  > Time passes..
  Year 34...
  
  The more Holgard changes the more it stays the same.
  
  It's a