Divine Empress of Blood

It’s been about a week since Nick set me up with an apartment, and oh my is it beautiful. He really went all out. It’s a penthouse suite just a few minutes from Times Square. Bulletproof one-way windows for a panoramic view of the city. Bedroom with ensuite, office, kitchen, living room and a storage room where I also have my washing machine. And oh my, the ensuite bathroom. The bathtub is located on a small pedestal, which gives a perfect view of the city, it’s truly beautiful at night. The rooms are very minimalistic at the moment, as I’ve yet to get a lot of furniture. I have a queen’s size bed with a canopy in my bedroom, why a canopy? I have no idea, blame my vampiric urges. The living room has a leather couch with an accompanying coffee table. Kitchen is also sort of barebones, except for the coffee maker. That’s state of the art, top of the line, and oh my goddess (Sorry Athena), is it divine.

Speaking of Athena. I’ve spoken to her a few times since setting up here, and we fixed a few problems. I can eat now in my goddess form, while it is optional, same with the bathroom. I’m functionally not human, or even alive anymore, no matter the form I take. My body is just imitating a lot of life functions, my womb apparently being one of them? I don’t know how that works, but I can get pregnant, again, if I so wish to. I can also like just, choose not to? Yeah I have a lot to explore. Apparently my mind is also a bit altered, due to the mix of souls, the contract and a few other things. I’m more happy and wild? I play by my own rules and nobody can chain me down sort of mentality. It’s really relaxing.

My goddess form is a bit taller than my vampiric one. Around 180 cm, which is apparently quite tall for women in the US. I have the same rose gold hair, silver eyes and pupil shape that Athena has. For all intents and purposes, I am her twin, just without divinity. Something she mentioned I can attain down the line if I so choose? I don’t know about that.

I’ve also set up work, and applied to university. I elected to do a dual major in both business and history. I figured I should learn about religion, stories, rumors, myths, all of these subjects are touched upon in the history major. Work is well, fixer/assassin for hire. I’ve already done a couple of jobs, they’re incredibly easy to do in my vampiric form, I don’t even need to get weapons due to my claws and fangs. So yeah, I’ve amassed around a million USD. One thing I have learnt is that the more high profile you are in this country, the better. At the beginning I wanted to be lowkey, so I wouldn't get noticed by my old military. The thing is goddess form makes me taller and changes my body. I’m still incredibly beautiful, something I’m probably going to hate once I start university, but my hair is curly instead of straight, the colour looks natural and not dyed, and my face looks a tiny bit different. If you scrutinize my forms side by side you can probably conclude they’re the same person, maybe. Anyways I figured that I should set up an alias, well, this won’t be an alias, this would be my permanent name. My underworld moniker is Empress of Blood, Athena was the one who suggested that. Oh right, rambling. Yes so, high profile. I’m going to donate a bit to the university. Nick is going to set me up with a few connections with the story being that I’m a descendant of old nobility in Greece, with ties to Athena’s original priestesses. Basically I’m setting myself up to be important enough that if my old country ever discovers me, they have to be discreet about doing anything to me. 

I’ve also been reading a bit about fantasy, some popular novels and reading up on lore. I’m probably not going to delve deeper into that besides my studies or if we know what god’s avatar I’m going to kill. There are some interesting things happening in NYC though. It’s apparently a hub for changed, they currently haven’t coined a term for it, so I’m just calling them, well, us, changed for now. Anyways some hero person called Mystica Parallax has set up an organization called the Heroes Defence Association, or HDA for short. They’re an organization who’s negotiating with the government regarding the rights of the changed, as they are per the law not considered human. They’re working on a register changed, detailing their powers into levels of importance or degree of possible destruction, as well as defending changed from different situations. Yeah I’m going to stay as far away from them as possible. I don’t know if they’ll discover my vampiric side. I don’t think so, since it’s hidden by Athena’s divinity whenever I’m in my goddess form, but I really don’t want to take any chances.

I have gotten better at controlling my urges, and I’ve been experimenting a bit about different blood types and such. The better a lifestyle a person lives, the better their blood tastes. Now I say lifestyle, but it’s incredibly subjective. Basically the more a person lives the life they want, or the happier they are with their life, the better it tastes. There’s also the opposite side of the spectrum. The more terror or pain a person feels, the more life force I draw out, and lifeforce is even more delicious than blood. I’ve learnt how to separate between the two, not how I draw them, but their taste.

I’ve had a contact of Nick hack into the government database and create my name and background. I'm officially a US citizen, with ties to the greek nobility. Going to be interesting to interact as such. Luckily I have a lot of memories and knowledge from Athena regarding well, everything greek. While she isn’t a greek goddess, she did reside, or interact with that country the most, due to her father, Zeus. Who apparently is dead, killed by said daughter. I had to laugh when she told me the reason was that he didn’t stop setting her up for marriage. That was really funny, not going to lie. Anyways I’m staring at my brand new ID. I’ve had a bit of fun with the name. The alias that started everything was Sofia, which is greek for wisdom. My current last name, the one I picked and one which is incredibly fitting for what’s to come, is Polemos, the greek word for war. In the spirit of being Athena’s twin sister, she picked my first name which is quite similar to hers. Ethenia. I haven’t forgotten to pay homage to my vampiric side, but as I want to keep it hidden, I’ve thrown in the letter B, for blood.

Yes, that is my name. Ethenia B. Polemos