Blaine — Samira's First Eternity

Blaine — Samira's First Eternity Blaine meets Samira when she's dying. Her mother is already gone, the plague is all around her, and she still believes God is going to save her. His companions think she's pathetic. Blaine sees something in her that makes him stay behind when the others leave. That's the beginning of their relationship in Vampires: The Eternal, and I think it explains why their reunion goes as badly as it does. He falls for the part of her that refuses to give up, then spends centuries expecting that part to wear off. He turns her into a vampire in Oxford in 1348. When she wakes, the sickness no longer has the same hold on her. She's been given what looks like an answer to the thing she was praying for, although the answer has fangs and expects her to start feeding on people. Blaine introduces her to that life. They hunt, travel, sleep together, and become part of the Black Death's long existence. He's affectionate with her. He's also perfectly capable of treating people as meals. I don't think the love story makes him secretly decent. The same man who can be tender with Samira tears a soldier's head and spine out in the present-day story. Samira wants their existence to mean something. She talks about conquest, transformation, and spreading eternity. Blaine thinks she's still young enough to be carrying the expectations of a human life. Eventually, he assumes, she'll understand there isn't a grand purpose to all of this. There's another relationship sitting between them, too. Vanessa made Blaine. Blaine made Samira. He recognizes a bond in both directions, which becomes a problem every time those two women want incompatible things from him. In Spain in 1680, Samira wants to leave for the New World. Vanessa doesn't want her ambitions disrupting the group. Blaine tries to sit between them, but when Samira offers him the chance to go with her, he stays. From his side, maybe it's another argument across a life that seems endless. From hers, it's the man she loves choosing not to come with her. Centuries later, he gets a much more powerful Samira back. She has a castle, followers, and absolute faith in the Being. She's still willing to take him into her bed. This time she uses silver manacles to make sure he doesn't leave it. When Vanessa attacks her, Blaine eventually breaks free and intervenes. He won't let Vanessa kill his progeny. But when Samira wants Vanessa dead, he argues for forgiveness. They're all connected by blood, he says. If he can forgive Samira, and Samira can forgive him, that should mean something for Vanessa too. It doesn't. Samira kills Vanessa, then makes Blaine tell her what she means to him. He calls her his love and his life. He kneels and offers to join her new order. She says she forgives him. Then she kills him anyway. For me, that's the ugly payoff to his belief that he could always find a way to keep both relationships. Samira no longer wants the kind of love he's offering, where he can love her and still disagree, hesitate, or care about someone she's condemned. She wants faith without those limits. He finally submits, but by then his earlier uncertainty is enough to make him expendable. Source: Vampires: The Eternal #1–3.