Our family, the Morgans, are one of the largest and most respected in both the vampire and human worlds. My father held the proud title of "Sir": he was once a knight of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the First of England. My mother is from the Bohemian Bogali family. And I'm half-English, half-Czech with the stupid name of Cedric. I've already mentioned my older brother Markus.
Our life is full of fun: we have the night all to ourselves. Speed, strength, freedom – it's all glorious and wonderful. Until sunrise. As soon as the daylight begins its rising, we hurry to hide in our dwellings. Contrary to human fictions, the sun does not kill us or burn our skin. The reason for our dislike of the sun is different: if it touched us with its rays, people would see the decrepit, dilapidated remains we hide under the beautiful disguise created by the ideal of human beauty. We pretended to be human. That is why the sun was our enemy: as soon as we were seen in our true faces, real people would run away, and we would not need panic in the human world. Our secrecy and denial of our own existence is the main aspect of our life: we are predators, humans are our prey.
– I have something to tell you," my brother whispered to me. – It's personal.
– I'm intrigued," I replied briefly.
Markus didn't often come to me with "personal" business. And curiosity got the better of me. Knowing my brother, I had a feeling this was going to be an important and very interesting conversation.
As soon as the bright orange disc of the sun set in a thick, long sea of clouds, Markus and I left the castle and made our way to a remote low boulder.
My brother's mysterious and distracted look intrigued me. I knew from Markus's eyes, always laughing but now calm and even nervous, that our conversation would be serious. I wondered what my eyes were like at that moment. In my heart I was speculating what the conversation would be about, if it required such secrecy.
We stopped at the edge of the cliff, and I looked expectantly at my brother, thinking Markus would start his story immediately, but he seemed oblivious to the fact that he'd summoned me to a secret conversation and was silently watching the horizon.
– So, what are we talking about? – I asked in a bored tone, sensing that if I didn't speak first, Markus wouldn't say a word.