The Anatomy of Vampires: Volume 1 by Alistair Vlain

be subservient to him. The depicted result was she then mated with an archangel, thereby creating night monsters, or as we know them, Vampires. There is also a list of eight creatures that stand as symbols for darkness and Lilith:
    (12) Her nobles shall be no more, nor shall kings be proclaimed there; all her princes are gone. (13) Her castles shall be overgrown with thorns, her fortresses with thistles and briers. She shall become an abode for jackals and a haunt for ostriches. (14) Wildcats shall meet with desert beasts, satyrs shall call to one another. There shall the Lilith repose, and find for herself a place to rest. (15) There the hoot owl shall nest and lay eggs, hatch them out and gather them in her shadow; There shall the kites assemble, none shall be missing its mate. (16) Look in the book of the LORD and read: No one of these shall be lacking, For the mouth of the LORD has ordered it, and His spirit shall gather them there. (17) It is He who casts the lot for them, and with His hands He marks off their shares of her; They shall possess her forever, and dwell there from generation to generation.
    - Isaiah 34
     
    My mind spun. I read on about how the bloodline was allegedly passed down through the ages from this treacherous, and demonic woman: creatures shaped by the devil, in his image as God intended mortals. And what was more, these creatures of darkness maintained the ability to catch and actually transform those shaped by God, which made them all the more dangerous indeed. I salivated at the plethora of information, scribbling tirelessly, sometimes clutching the side of my neck when the strange burning would begin to ensue. There were a few moments when my vision became blurry, but then cleared again.
    Reading on and on, I finally came to a passage toward the end of the book, which began to discuss the most ancient and powerful of the covens; a group of Vampires who were hand selected by Lilith herself. The Parliament. They ruled over all of dark kind. And I realized then, exactly who visited me that night in London. The man who had given me the parchment note was one who belonged to the Parliament, and probably none other than the leader himself.
    The very last until of the book entitled, Illuminatio , were the pages most interesting to me. It held the information I really needed, and here it is—that which will inevitably save my wife and redeem the horrifying status of the Vampire kind: The light cannot exist without the darkness. And though Lilith is considered evil by all of mortal kind, the nature of the Vampire is not meant to be evil. Not meant to be hated. The sun cannot rise and set without the moon. We cannot grow without the suffering of winter. We cannot be reborn if we do not die. Bad must exist for good to be celebrated. Balance must exist in the world, and so without the darkness, the Regime can never truly reign supreme. This is why they fear the Vampire. This is why Vladislov wishes to conceal them, and possibly destroy them. They want only light, and only goodness to exist, but the truth is, that is impossible. And that is the secret. Fear and hatred. Fear of what the light, and also the mortals do not understand. For who really knows Lucifer as intimately as they know their lover? And who can say who is truly acting on evil intent, and who is acting on their will to live? In order to thrive over the entrapments of the Regime, all the darkness must do is find the power to continue to exist, and to not diminish in the face of day.
    I glanced over my shoulder to find the nun peering at me from behind the door. I hadn’t even heard her open it. We regarded each other silently for a few, blinking moments before she said, “Did you find what you needed?”
    Without a word, I nodded. I began to collect my notebook into my briefcase and she entered deeper into the room, her sandals quiet over the wooden floors.
    “I know you are afraid to read what the letter says,” she said delicately. “I