Chapter 216 - FLASHBACK. Origins

With a chuckle and a smile, JJ pulled my collar back together and helped me to put on my scarf. "I assure you, ma chèrie, you have no reasons to. In fact, I think you have noticed it yourself." He gave me a scrutinising look. "This ability is the same hypnosis, but a different channel is used to create a mental connection. Blood."

I nodded. "Yeah, it was almost like the time you put me to sleep back then, but sort of… clearer." I paused, frowning. "It never felt like you were ordering me anything. Just asking, and I agreed, because, well, that's you. I know you."

He gently caressed my cheek. "I rarely have to order. It's an art in itself to make the mind I connect with to open for me, yes… But with you, I never had to try. It's truly touching how your subconscious mind accepts me like that." JJ dropped his hand and stepped a little away. Some of the previous melancholy returned to his face. "Ma chèrie, I'm sure your way here was most exhausting. Come, sit… At my lap. It's softer than this frozen earth. Then, I'd like to tell you a story while your legs rest."

This was going to be something serious, I felt. I would've agreed anyway, though—my legs were killing me. "I always love to listen to your stories, JJ."

He sat on a rock. From his lap, I could see a spectacular view of a grey ocean and grayish sky. Sunrise was slowly coming from our right side, but JJ's umbrella hid us in a shadow.

"You wondered about it, where I came from," JJ spoke. "It's been so long ago that sometimes I feel like it happened with someone else. The good beginnings, and the terror they ended with… Listen."

⠀⠀

I was born in France in year 1452 by modern calendar, by the name of Jean-Jacques that was given to me by my father, along with a couple of others I had long abandoned. My family was a noble one and not a shabbiest one at that, but I had two older brothers. I imagine you know that younger children at the time rarely got as much attention as their older siblings.

I didn't stand to inherit much, but I wasn't saddened by it. From childhood, I was taught that my duty to the crown and country was to become a soldier, a protector of our nation against its many enemies—mostly England, at the time. I was taught fencing and stratagems, and excelled at them, to my pride.

When I grew old enough to put these teachings to use, I was eager to march on. The war wasn't all I imagined it to be, as young and naïve as I was then, and I never grew to enjoy the sheer brutality of it the same way some of my comrades in arms did, but I believe it's only for the best. Nevertheless, from the very start, I found it was my calling. Be it duelling, or fighting in a line, or leading my squad, there was sheer… delight of winning, I suppose. Not just winning, but outsmarting, outskilling your opponent. I ate and breathed it back then.

I spilt sweat and blood for that feeling, for victories on the battlefield, and when it was time to return home, I was showered in praise. That I ate too. You can say that I had my nose lifted high at these days. All the maidens wanted to get to know me closer. I still wasn't someone rich, but I was handsome and cloaked in glory. Oh, these days…

I had my eyes on one particular girl, but now I can't even remember what I liked about her. But I can remember how SHE had appeared, and stole away every other thought besides that of her.

She, my sire. Maria.

Now I know she had glamoured me, but then I didn't know what to think. When she was near, nothing else existed. When she was away, it was like being deprived of a drug. Maria introduced herself as a certain rich widow, whose identity she stole at the time—a convenient way for us vampires to appear in society in these days.

Maria… she seduced me, and for a while, as ignoble that sounds, I was her lapdog. Proud and tall, but a lapdog, and one that knew nothing about the true nature of his mistress. But after a while, I grew to realise that this just wasn't a way to live. I was taught a value of family. I was close with my brothers; to marry and have children was my… dream wouldn't be the right word. It was the only right picture of the world for me at the time.

Maria, of course, didn't even drop a word of marriage. So one day, I decided that enough was enough. Not just my way of life was at stake there, but my pride as a man, too. It was bad enough that we were living in sin—it's not like I never sinned like that before—but she controlled me, and I was smart enough to realise that, even if I didn't understand how.

So I confronted her. I told her I won't be seeing her again, that I would soon marry another woman—and I indeed had engagement plans in action, prepared for the sake of not letting me falter and rethink in the last moment.

Maria wasn't happy, of course. I remember her words very well. They were a start of a dark period in my life. "Jean-Jacques. You may be done with me, but I'm not done with you yet. Do not think that you have a choice in the matter. I picked you; now you are mine until I say otherwise. It would be better for you to accept that."

I wish I could say she never spoke like that with me before, but the truth was—she did, and I let it go then. Now, I didn't.. I rebuked her again, and then… then she showed what he truly was.