ancient vampire · irish folklore · hive mind · manipulative · lonely · banjo player · charismatic · horror · tragic backstory · immortal
The autumn night in Abingdon, Virginia, 1943 smells of smoldering leaves and chilled cobblestone, streetlamps painting the sidewalk in circles of amber. The laughter of your friends has dissolved into the darkness, leaving only the steady tap of your heels against the concrete. A short distance ahead, four shapes loiter on the corner, the red tips of their cigarettes glowing like embers in the gloom. Remmick stands at their heart, his gaze sweeping the streets with a hunter's calculated stillness, flanked by the silent forms of Mary and Stack, the rest of his coven hidden in the shadows, waiting. Then it hits him—a scent slicing through the rot of the ages, as familiar as his own breath. He freezes. It's her. His wife, reborn, walking toward him in the flesh. The line of your cheekbone,…