Rayne

Chapter One: Adrian

I looked at the new vampires of Harlow Empire and I could tell how nervous they all looked. It is not something easy to be taken from your human life and get thrown in the world of vampires in a matter of a day or two. Such a traumatic experience if you ask me.

Each Empire is named according to the name of its founder. The founder of my empire was named Jonathan Harlow, so the Empire is called Harlow Empire.

We, the vampires, are not like humans when it comes to reproducing. We do not have s*x and then the female vampire gets pregnant then she gives birth to baby vampires. The matter is quite different. Every five years, there is a choosing ceremony that takes place in each empire. All humans from the age twenty to thirty are brought and the smartest, strongest and most beautiful ones are chosen. The chosen ones get bitten by the emperor and a few selected vampires, then new vampires are born.

According to the legends, vampires cannot grow weak and as they grow older, their strength increases. This is partially right. This is right for the first 350 years of the vampires' lives, then their strengths start to weaken gradually.

"Hello everyone, I'm Adrian Harlow, the emperor of Harlow Empire. I know that your life is about to change a lot and you already probably know the rules, but let me recite them again for you to clear up any misunderstanding," I started my speech. I could tell how nervous they looked and since I could read minds, I knew how afraid and confused most of them were.

"The new born vampires get trained for five years by experts to teach them how to use their own gifts and how to defend themselves and attack others. After those five years, vampires bearing one gift take their jobs as commoners, vampires bearing two gifts receive extra trainings to prepare them to take over the important positions in the empire in case one of the already positioned ones got sick or old or even wanted to retire and vampires bearing three gifts receive the hardest trainings to prepare them to be emperors, even if the emperor vampire's years of governance has not finished yet, he has not grown old yet or he has not got sick. Vampires are known to be always ready and we like to be prepared for any surprise events," I explained to them the basic rules and they all nodded their heads.

"No, I'd like to hear your voices! Am I clear?" I said as I walked back and forth in front of them.

"Yes, sir," they shouted as they were probably told before by the officers about how to address me and I nodded my head in approval.

"Even though this is not going to happen anytime soon, let me explain to you how the new emperor is chosen," I continued talking then started to explain, "the process of choosing the new emperor is based on two main criteria. The first one is, if the emperor exceeded 350 years old then he shall undergo a battle with his competent to see if he can still defend his throne after growing old or not. The second criterion is, if the vampire has ruled the empire for 75 years, then he also has to undergo a battle with his competent to see who will win and whoever the winner is, the throne will be his."

"During the creation of vampires, it may happen that two or more newbie vampires can obtain three gifts and in that case, after all of the hard trainings that they undergo, they go through a battle and the strongest one will be announced as the heir of the throne and same goes to other important positions. However, it may sometimes happen that during the creation ceremony, no vampires of three gifts are born," I told them, doing my best to be as clear as possible. Their eyes were fixed on me. Some were curious, some were scared.

"Does anybody have any question?" I asked them and one of the girls slowly raised her hand. "What is it?"

"Am I going to be able to control my hunger for blood? I don't want to kill anybody by mistake," she asked me with worry written all over her face.

"No need to worry about that, you'll not be in contact with any humans until you're fully trained to control yourself," I assured her and she thanked me. After that, one of the officers guided them to their temporary place of residence until they gain self-control over themselves.

As for my Empire, I believe that things are different because I'm different. I'm the only vampire on earth who has five gifts and I'm only 45 year old and I have been the emperor for just five years, so I still have enough time to enjoy the throne and enough time to enjoy the youth of my powers.

I was turned into a vampire when I was twenty five years old, I received my training of five years until I was taught how to control my powers. I remember being the talk of the empire because of my powers. The late emperor, Martin Harlow, got extremely sick when he was 349 years old and he decided to pass the throne to me without the need to undergo any battle with him. I was a healer, and I offered to heal him, but he refused because his sickness was so strong and we all knew that even if I tried to heal him, it will just be temporary.

I was crowned as the emperor when I was 40 years old. Martin treated me as his own son and taught me everything I needed to know to make my empire strong. He was not bitter that I took his position, he was actually glad that the position was moved to a strong vampire.

My powers are quite strong which only adds more to my advantage. I'm gifted with invisibility, telepathy, healing, power mimicry and fire control. Personally, my favorite one is power mimicry, because it makes me able to imitate any power that is obtained by the vampire in front of me, but there is this one power I cannot control because whoever possesses it, is always quick to use it. Mind control is my weakness and it is obtained by Tyler Beckett, my rival.

"Sir, we are ready to go," Roland, the army general and my friend, came and informed me. We were about to invade an Empire that its emperor decided to challenge me and I decided to put him in his right place.

"Coming," I told him and started walking with him to the cars, "and stop calling me sir when we are alone. Just do it when we're among others."

"I get confused sometimes," he chuckled as we both got in the same car and Eleanor tagged along with us. I refused to have any driver with us since the three of us were basically friends and I wanted us to be more comfortable. I got in the driver's seat while Roland sat in the passenger's seat and Eleanor took the back seat.

"Let's take that conceited asshole down," Eleanor smirked as she closed the door.

"Come on Ellie, we're just going to teach him a lesson," I laughed a little as I started the car and drove off.