For as long as I can remember, I lived with my Adrion. I must have been about five or six when my parents had discovered that I possessed strange powers and an affinity for spellcasting. My parents didn't understand my abilities, and so they called on Adrion, a distant relative, to meet me and to help them determine what should be done with me, and how I could be cured. Adrion always told me that they had been unwilling to accept that I was what I was, a witch, and that I could not be changed. To spare me the risks that would come when the townspeople discovered what I was later in life, Adrion took guardianship of me and neither of us ever saw my parents again.

Everyone in the family knew that Adrion von Dietrich was a vampire. He had been looking after our family since before my parent's grandparents were children. He told me that he was a great-great-great-great uncle of mine, but when I was little I called him 'papa'. His duties as a high priest in the Satanic Church took us from our London home frequently, and he always patiently accepted my accompaniment, though bringing a young girl such as myself on such long voyages must have been difficult for him. Our nomad lifestyle meant that I could never be given a formal education, so Adrion taught me all he knew - a significant knowledge - of theology, of magic, of herbalism, science, astronomy and mathematics. He was always pressing books upon me and making me read for hours. But even when he was making me read about things I didn't care for, his gentle insistence charmed me, and so I would smile and kiss his frosty white cheek, and go back to my studies.

Adrion would sometimes take company for their blood - always consenting donors, but he would not allow me near when he was enjoying them, and he asked me never to speak of it to him or anyone else. Adrion was a perfect gentleman about his vampirism.

As I began to grow into the passion of young womanhood, I began noticing other things about my Adrion beyond his soft, polite manner of speaking and his seemingly endless intelligence. I began to notice the sleekness of his straight black hair, and the shine of his skin, and the beauty of his crooked smile. I wanted to kiss the sweet shadows his lashes cast against his razor-sharp cheekbone as he read in his study. I wanted to take his long pale hands with their perfect sharp-filed nails and kiss his fingertips. I looked at other men and could not help but compare each one to him, they all seemed rough and uncouth and far too boorish when measured against him. I shed my childish moniker of 'papa' in favour of 'brother,' or more often, just 'Adrion'. I loved him feverishly. I believe he noticed this change in me, the change in my love for him, and he took it gracefully; he was careful not to bruise my delicate pride and careful also to never mention it - it would have embarrassed me far too much.

But when I turned eighteen, Adrion announced that I was no longer to live with him, that I was a woman now and that I must go out on my own. I was crushed. I had believed that Adrion and I would live in his townhouse together forever. I cried. I screamed. I threw his priceless vases and smashed them on the walls. And then, I did something awful, something I had never done before. I accused Adrion of never really loving me, of stealing me away from my parents like a monster in the night, of lying to me, of seducing me and making me want him, and of now unfairly casting me out, cruelly. I told him that I hated him. I still wince to think of it now, this outburst. Those words. But he merely watched in silence as my madness took hold - that was more maddening than anything, his calm poise while I slowly lost my wits. I left his house and wandered all night, cold and terrified, but too proud to show my face again so soon.

As dawn approached, his carriage pulled up alongside me in the street and his hand reached out for me. I was so grateful to see him again. I kissed him over and over in the carriage, insistent. I pulled at his jacket and bit at his throat. I begged him for the first time to drink from me, a request I knew he forbid. But Adrion surprised me; he took me into his bed. He complied with all my entreaties.

I assumed that now he would let me stay. I assumed that now we could finally be lovers, that he would never send me away, that my role in his life had changed. I was mistaken. Adrion had bought me a house on the other side of London within the week.

Again, I raged at him. But this time, Adrion would not comply with my demands. In fact, he finally lost his temper. He berated my for my ungratefulness. He threw me out.

I wrote letters threatening to expose him for what he really was, a vampire and a devil-worshiper, a black monster, a kidnapper, seducer of his own daughter. I wrote letters begging forgiveness, of promising to never misbehave again, if only he would welcome me back into his home, accept me as his wife. I lamented that my virginity was taken, I would never find a husband now. Didn't he feel responsible? I was steeped in bitterness. I felt that he had cast some awful spell upon me - if I only could break it. Adrion never wrote back.

Finally, I turned up on his doorstep. I refused to go away until he would see me. It had been nearly a year since I had seen him; my beautiful Adrion was in his study, he looked the same as always. He regarded me with the same cool silence that he had met my past outbursts with. I told him I hated my house, I hated the people I knew, I was bored, I was lonely. I wanted to come back. Wouldn't he at least come and see me? Was he not my only family?

'Leatrix,' he started sternly. 'You learned nothing of what I tried to teach you. Your selfishness knows no bounds. Your only ambition seems to be to manipulate me. I will not have you in my house. I will not have you as a daughter. Go out in the world, and make yourself useful. Do not trouble me again until you've done so.'

Another year has passed since that day. Now, shortly after my twentieth birthday, I think I may have finally accomplished something that even my Adrion will have to take notice of.

I pray he will...