This day I dreamt. My mentor came to me and told me to go get a slave, travel ro an inn outside Constantinople, and give him to someone. I would know who when the time was right. When the night came I rose and met a group of guards surrounding the most hiddeous of creatures. Standing over two meters high, muscles rippling all over and with a grin filled with needlesharp tuscs my legs went weak. I was sure the guards wouldn´t matter if this monster got into frency. But I did as I was told. Took the lead and pointed out the direction towards the inn.
Some hours later we stood outside the small inn. Inside I met the most astonishing group of people I´ve ever met. I knew at once these where the people I should talk to and so I introduced myself. There was William Cavanaugh, a former physician, and Rupert, with a face of an angel. The latter radiated heaven and for the second time my heart trembled. Later I came to understand these two where of the clan Tremere. We took the stairs up to a meetingroom. I passed over the beast known as a Gargoyle, to Rupert.
Soon the next vampire arrived. I will sure have nightmares after breathing the same air as him. Tagelito of clan Cappadocian looked like a hideous dried out corp. The skin stretched close to the skull and with a deadly grin all over he made me hide close to William, the only one looking somewhat normal.
Then something weirder happened. A small gnollish thing walked over the floor, opened a door in it at vanished. There where no sign of a door left. And where did he come from.
Next the windows flung open. A pitch black nightmare with huge wings settled on the window frame and then jumped over to Rupert. Now he had two gargoyles. Well. He had with him some small gargoylish animals too. Must have some stone addiction or something.
And as that wasn´t enough Simon von Lichthausen stepped thru the door with an aura of a kaiser. He radiated power enough for me to start thinking of maybe leaving before he found out that I was a jew, on the other side of the social scale. I had very bad experiences with his kind of people. Bur when he introduced himself talking about us meeting sometime in the future together with someone he with a smile called Hitler I started to think he maybe wasn´t so bad. At least we would stand in the same era together.
Now we where all together. And we started to move on for Constantinople. Just a couple of hours away, before the sun would rise, we had to settle in the city. How strange didn´t we look this night travelling in the dark. Only the humans had torches. Well. I can tell you my nightvision have grown pretty good as a vampire.
Soon we saw the huge Walls of Constantine rising 20 meter high i three elevated steps. We stopped outside the Golden gates and asked to be let in. When the guard refused I had to try to command him to open. It didn´t work. Strange as it have done so many times during my llast year. Simon showed an invitation from one of the nobles in the city and that opened the gates. This was the easy part. We soon came to the second wall, the Wall of Theodisius. This gate was also closed.
I can just sum up what happened. A massacre. You just don´t shoot with crossbows at a noble group as ours. It all started with lightnings frying the guard captain. Guards where running all around up at the walls screeming at something and later in agony and death. Something black with huge wings flew around helping people leave the battlements with a haste. I felt glad he was on my side. William showed himself as a cunning bowman hitting men many hundred of meters away in the dark, probably at the spots he targeted. It all ended with silence. I had to taste some of the grilled captain just to see if he had been ok. When we left there was no trace of any soldiers what so ever. Members of our group know how to make flesh into dust. And so we opened the gates, went thru, and closed them behind us. At last. We had entered the city it self.
We now had to find somewhere to hide during the day. Soon we found an entrance down to the catacombs under the city. The guardians where left outside with a huge collection of books, a part of some kind of library the group had left in Prague. We walked the sewers and soon met with a strange ghoulish creature. This day seems to be day of my life filled with monsters. It didn´t say much. Mostly something like: – I´m one of three. Then he invited us to meet his master. This showed to be noone less than Malachite, the leader of clan Nosferatu in this city. He was upset. Something had happened to his soldiers up at a gate in the second wall. It happened to be that this coincided with our arrival there. He claimed that we now where in debt to him. We didn´t dare to disagree. After explaining some basics about the city he left us in a room over day. We got three days to show why we should get permission to stay. And now comes another night. What´ll happen next?
The three days have gone by. I´ve been busy finding my way in the city. First night I tried to find out where all jews had their quarters. Of course by the Gate of Hebrew, close to the venetians, in the eastern parts of Constantinople. I took the adress of the rabbi and the sofer, and found a good place underground to rest during daytime. I also found my way to two of the biggest city hospitals, The four martyrs and Orphans.
Now my hunger entered the scene. Craving for blood in a city in which I have no hunting ground is hard. I tried to find easy prey like someone in need of a physician, but only found a drunken guy who didn´t respond very well to me when I offered my serivices. So I had to hunt for rats. Not so tasty, but it works. Some so called noble vampires shun this kind of blood. It´s nutricious.
