Prologue
My name is Melanie Ann Taylor, and I was turned into a vampire in 1863, during the Civil War. The reason why I was turned was that of said war; I wanted to help not only for my family and home but because of the love of my life who was putting his life on the line for the cause. In an attempt to join the war, I ran away from my home leaving a farewell note for my parents, determined to join the cause no matter what.
Maria came across me when I was creating a fake identity of a male, requesting to join the war. She saw the passion and determination to enter the battlefield and turned me into a beast without any thought before I could do anything.
It was the most painful three days of my existence, a pain I never want to feel again. I could feel every cell in my body die and reform back to make me indestructible and almost invincible to anything that comes for me. Maria showed me the ways of being the creature I was turned into and immediately got me into combat where I was promised to be free a year later, unaware that freedom meant death.
Originally I was meant to die after a year of being a vampire, helping Maria take over territories, but it was changed soon after we realised I was different from other newborns.
For one, I still held the eye colour I had when I was human: emerald green. Second, I could still cry, and I still craved human food every once in a while. What’s more crazy, I can still fall asleep if I wanted to. It seemed that not all of the blood in my body was taken over by the vampire venom and that some still remained to make me this peculiar. It made me curious as to what else I obtained from my human life, but never really got the chance to explore since my time was occupied with a war no human was aware of. It made me forget the reason why I wanted to go and join the Civil War, to be with my lover who I am slowly forgetting.
Originally, I was expected to turn into a greedy newborn that only craved for human blood nonstop; however, I was able to tame my thirst and only drink when necessary. Originally, it was expected of me to lose my newborn strength and speed as the year came to an end, instead, I still held the same speed and strength from when I was first turned. All because of the human blood that didnt seem to want to go away.
Nearing the end of the year, something drastic happened. I came across a newborn in the opposing side, who held a certain gift that overthrew most newborns. He had the ability to show the human life of a person, and in doing so made them feel horror and heartbreak to realise what they had become. This led to many willing deaths caused by their enemy.
When he turned to me, I was reminded of my past life, and the reason why I was turned into the beast I was. Instead of ruining me, I was motivated. I killed him much to his surprise, but after his death, it seemed I had somehow obtained his gift in seeing the past and projecting it to whomever I want.
When I told Maria the ability I held and how I got it, she grabbed a newborn who had the ability to detect others for gifts and demanded the newborn to analyse me. He told us I had the ability to copy a gift and store them away, making me the most powerful vampire to ever exist. Maria was thrilled and because of that, I no longer had to fear for my death since I now had a reason to live; to be her slave until the day I somehow die.
Well, so I thought.
If you told me that I was to continue to walk the Earth in the 21st century, I would have laughed at you and told you that you were crazy to think so. I didn’t expect to reunite with the love of my life who turned into the same creature I was, I didn’t expect to go on the run because of our love, I didn’t expect to have a family in the future, didn’t expect to meet people who would love me and care for me, something I hadn’t experienced in many years. I didn’t expect to meet happiness in my life after being turned into a vampire, but look at me now, living in the 21st century, many years into my future. And it all started on a normal day in the life of the newborn armies in 1864, during the Civil War.
