Night is when we slake our thirst. {Vitae and The Fire Rises}

[Eirlys Vitae]

No man in the village could say he did not know to whom the name of Briallen belonged. The wealthy and yet fairly young widow she was, who resided in the castle near the small town. This lady, probably, was the most popular person in the village, even if she never showed up in there - however her fame wasn't good, and inhabitants were sure she was paying them a visit, and very often. Only the ones whom she's been meeting could no longer witness if it was lady Briallen leaving bite marks on their bloodless necks, or someone else. Indeed, the rumors which never seemed to end were calling this lonely woman a vampire, creature of the night who savored blood of the living people. Her pale skin, a lifestyle of an anchoress and the most importantly - death of ten men who were married to her, were causing people to fear the lonely owner of the castle. There were also whispers she may be a wife of a devil, as her beauty did not seem to belong on this earth - be she a regular villager, it'd be long since she's turned just into a pile of ash... But Briallen, despite all what people spoke about her, was the only person keeping village's economy alive, often making kind donations, mostly to families who's lost a dear person or had their house destroyed by fire. What only made discussions more intense was the fact of her donations usually being much greater to those, who's family members were attacked by a vampire.

Those rumors didn't bother Briallen a slightest bit. She ignored how hostile villagers were behind her back and how pleasant and friendly they behaved during those feasts she's been organizing in her castle from time to time to stay in contact with people living nearby. One thing they were right about - she was a vampire, a merciless creature alive with human's blood. And those feasts, donations, anything - it wasn't a form of kindness, it was method how to keep those people only talking, but not acting. Marrying a man from the village was also one of the ways how to avoid any unpleasant action taken against her, but the big rate of their disappearance was soon noticed and wasn't found accidental - sadly, people didn't believe she only had a bad luck. Even though she indeed wasn't a very lucky person. Not to cause suspicion she sometimes had to fake her own death for decades - it wasn't any difficult, but just an annoying must. When villagers were getting out of control, Briallen was visiting one more village that was nearby. From there she was abducting a young girl, killing her, making her appearance nearly identical to her (ages of practice taught her that art) and after dressing corpse into her clothes, was leaving her body to rot somewhere in the castle... Herself she was hiding in the woods, attacking villagers as wildly as never before, causing them to come to her castle and break in seeking to finally capture her - and to find a rotten corpse with the same bite marks on the neck that the previous victims had. After that there always followed a funeral ceremony for the fake Briallen, and she was returning to her castle, living as previously, just no longer giving any signs of herself being alive.

However now it was still too early for that - she was still highly respected by villagers and her attacks weren't very frequent, too. For some time she was living by consuming blood of animals she could hunt in the forest, and humans were quite rare in her menu. Things were going to change in winter, when each person was going to gain more weight, being much taster for the teeth of a vampire lady. Through ages many vampire hunters where invited to spot out the murder, and she was always the main suspect - however no vampire hunter made it back home alive. After stepping into her castle they had no hope to get out, and they were favorite treat of Briallen. Unlike other victims, she didn't kill them immediately - no, she was taking a good time by playing with them, teasing them, brainwashing them, sometimes, if the hunter was attractive enough, she was even pleasing her physical desires. But once she was bored of her toys, of course, their fate wasn't any different from the rest. In past age, however, Briallen had a funnier way to deal with those persistent mortals - she was drugging a hunter during every meal, sucking his blood out step by step... But this method wasn't the best as in a meantime they were realizing becoming more and more weaker because of the blood loss, an, sure, never gave it out. Once of those attacked Briallen with a silver cross out of blue, and if she hadn't got a knife near to her, it would have cost her life. But her immortal existence didn't end that night, giving a valuable lesson - all must be done at once.