top of page

Vaela's Portrait

Jan 29

2 min read

3

7

0

The warm blush of crystal covered candles and whale oil chandeliers lit her way as she passed framed pictures commissioned by her maker: haunting and beautiful paintings of dim, quiet figures from a life now long past. At the top of the stairs the largest of these rose like a phantom, watching her from the facing wall as it had for fifteen decades, a life sized portrait of Vaela herself, painted by the renowned Italian portraitist Sofonisba Anguissola. Here the vampiress was depicted in a strict millstone collar over a gown of black, hair coiled tightly as she stood half behind an empty heart-back chair, her dark eyes distant and cold. In 1580 the wealthy merchant financier Lord Simeon Vietto de Rhoda, a vampire nearly 400 years of age, commissioned a female artist of great renown to paint the first image of his young progeny. Turned in 1557, Vaela Audette de Massein had by the time of her portrait experienced but twenty-three years of her new life as one of the living dead. The vampiress took a deep human breath, staring into the bobbing lights of the wagons creeping their way down the bridge.

Lord Simeon grunted with a smile, adjusting his spectacles. “I have decided the Anguissola will remain.”

“Have I not suffered my portrait long enough?” Vaela scowled at him. “You promised it would be sold on your return.”

“I promised to revisit the matter, which I have done, and I am resolved I’ll not be parted from it. There is memory, and manifest truth in your likeness.”

“What truth? I was lost, invisible, even to myself . . .”

“It is our providence to exist uncounted, and yet, you have found that which most of our kind will never realize. I think, were it painted tonight the chair in your portrait would not be empty.”

The wind stirred about them, and Vaela swallowed, watching the mortal procession below. “Perhaps not . . .”


The Saunmoor series begins HERE




Jan 29

2 min read

3

7

0

Comments

Share Your ThoughtsBe the first to write a comment.
bottom of page