“You were really a knight of the Knights Templar?”
“I was, yes. A servant of God helping pilgrims in their travels to worship. At least for a short while. We were consideredoldat a much younger age back then.”
There was something in his words that was so serious underneath the smile. It gave me a flutter.
“You were a holy man before you became a vampire?”
“I still am. Still, after over seven hundred years, the pursuit of faith still captivates me, but the more I know, the more I realise I don’t know a thing.” He paused. “It’s been hard to reconcile the lifestyle of a vampire with my previous incarnation, but I think I’m doing an ok job of it.”
I knew a little about the Knights Templar through history lessons at school. I knew they were powerful, and robed with powerful red crosses on their chests.
I also knew they were persecuted by the royals across the empire and destroyed for their sins.
“Fakesins,” Hans interjected. “There was very little truth in any of it, they just wanted us dead and buried.”
He cleared his throat and continued. “I was thirty-two years old when I became a vampire. The experience most definitely wasn’t one I’d been expecting.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure I wouldn’t have either.” I laughed, and took a sip of wine. “I may have watched almost every vampire movie ever made, but I didn’t believe they existed. Not for real.”
My vampire lover looked at me with a glint in his eyes.
“Ah, yes, Katherine, but the world exists very differently now. It wasn’t so much that I didn’t believe in vampires, but that I didn’t believe a vampire would come for me. We were a lot more alive with myths and legends. We had no internet to distract us, it was all about tales around a campfire, whispered through the generations.”
“So, what happened?” I asked him. “Who made you a vampire?”
“A friend. Someone I knew closely and had done for years, or so I thought. I had no idea that he was a vampire, even after all that time. He kept it very well hidden.” He laughed. “We’ve become an awful lot closer since.”
My mind whirred, remembering thepeoplecomment about the blood houses. Was thehea friend, or afriend? The idea was a surprisingly hot one.
Hans smiled. “He was purely a friend at that point. I had no experience of being bisexual at that time. Lord Neville was just a gentleman I knew through the Church, and talked through the gospels with. I’d spent many evenings at his manor, enjoying his company.Evenings, of course. It never occurred to me that I’d never once seen him in the day.”
Purely a friend at that point.I wondered if that was still the case now.
“I’ve had sex with Edwin, yes,” Hans answered. “We’ve shared some blood games, and had some fun times biting and chasing. Quite a different friendship than the one we started with, but nothing less genuine or valid.”
My mind was spinning at the thought of seven hundred years of religion and philosophy, and Hans being turned into a vampire by a Lord named Edwin. The sensation gave me a sense of doom, somehow. It reminded me of my mum and grandma preaching to me about being agood girlat the cost of everything else. Praying to God every single weekend without fail, but judging and scorning everyone around them.
Hans swirled the wine in his wine glass.
“Don’t judge anything by them. They aren’t an accurate representation.”
I didn’t want to delve into Mum and Grandma, so took a sip of wine and turned the topic back to him.
“What happened to you?”
“A lot of the Knights Templar were tortured, little one. Me included. The royals and their minions tried to force a confession of fake sins from me, but even until the very end, I wouldn’t give in.”
His words gave me a vile shudder. He nodded his head at my thoughts.
“Yes. I was beaten, and whipped, and stretched on a rack. Starved and lashed and burnt.”
I despised the idea of people hurting him.
“And your friend saved you?” I whispered. “Thank God for that.”
“Yes,” Hans said. “Quite literally. I was crucified in the church grounds and left for dead. Edwin appeared at midnight and cut me free.”
I let out a breath, not knowing quite what to say. Hans kept on talking.