Father in Darkness
00:33 Jan 20 2008
Times Read: 786
Now you have heard of my beginnings, humble as they were, but you must be wondering about the man I was for now, and the rest of my life to call father. Misrael, a dark man, with a kind of sternness about him that was prized in his time. He was a Roman, born during the reign of Octavius, and brought up as a soldier, he gained laurels of victory on occasion and was close to retirement when he was sent on a reconnaissance mission. This mission took him deep into what is now Germany, an eagle had been taken, and had to be returned before the legions lost their nerve. It was there that Misrael came across a man who had spoken perfect Latin to him, before robbing him of his life. That was his father in Darkness, a vampire who all would learn to respect and fear, Vladislau Draconis.
He was a tall man, far taller that I would ever become, but I had been under nourished throughout my early life, when there had been difficulty in finding food. With long dark hair, swept back out of his face, reaching down to his shoulders. His eyes he told me had once been brown, but had become over the years the characteristic black that all vampires, myself included, have. The only type of vampire not to have those are the vampires that are born part vampire and change into a full vampire over time, but this is very rare. Most believe it is impossible to happen, but one day who knows? Maybe by the end of this story you may have come to your own conclusion about how the self develops.
As we travelled, I gained a new respect for the man I hated, I hated him still but it was not loathing for what he was, it was for what he’d done to me. Maybe if he’d asked I would have said yes anyway, but the fact he didn’t ask, he just took. But I would not turn on him until I could be assured of victory. He told me stories of ancient battles, of things I had only dreamt of, yet I could learn so very little of my kind and our ways other than what I knew to be natural to me. Drinking blood, although at first distasteful to me grew to be as natural as eating and drinking. For the first week I needed to drink almost every night, but soon the constant pangs wore off, and I was able to not need to slake my thirst all the time.
Misrael did tell me that I would need less and less blood as I grew older, he hardly ever drunk, at the most once a month to sustain himself. Although even that was more out of enjoyment of the taste than from actual need, to you, blood may seem disgusting, and the thought of drinking it must horrify you, but you must remember I am no longer human, so I no longer care about taking from humans. This may seem like a prideful statement, but it is true. Within a few months of travelling with him Misrael was no longer the silent and fierce character I had first seen, nor was he as prideful as some might have thought, he’d seen empires come and go, watching from the outside with no small hand in some events. If a monarch had got too close to the truth, or was likely to find something out about an underground vampire nation, then the nation would dispatch one of the warriors, and somehow a new method of thinking would take control.
The warriors themselves were a strange sub sect of vampire society, respected by all. They kept the balance, without them on many occasions we would have been exposed and hunted down. I was as yet unaware of my position in this web of life, I thought I was just the new one, something that was just an annoyance until I was fully fledged. Really I should have guessed what was to happen, why Misrael had been so concerned as to see whether I was as he had said, perfect. But I was still getting used to the new sensations of life as a creature of the night. There are many legends surrounding both my kind as a whole and within our kind, about the warriors.
The first of the legends that should concern you is the story of the blade. The Draconis, my clan, my family, are the holders of a weapon of incredible power, the Draconis blade. It is a sword, which to you modern people may seem to be a mockery compared to you weapons, things that spit lead and fire. But those are nothing to the blade, it is darkness incarnate, or at least that’s what they say. It was supposedly forged in the darkness of the world, in the time when dark powers held dominion and the world of light had yet come to pass. The heart of darkness, the thing that gave birth to the first vampire forged the blade imbued it with some of its dark power. It is known by many names, “Soul-stealer” “Shadowblade” the “Vampire sword” but to all vampires it was simply the Draconis Blade.
As you’ve probably guessed from my description it is more than just a blade of steel that is exceedingly good for running a person through with, it’s almost a spiritual weapon. If someone is killed with it, there will be nothing left of that person, and they will leave a bloodless corpse. It takes the defeated person’s soul and uses it to empower the wielder. In essence it acts like a vampire for the soul and like a drug to the user. Like a drug a person can get addicted to its effects, and then all there is for them is killing, no sleep, no food, no emotion only death and more death. While the blade is evil itself, it’s wielders have always stood for good, creating a balance of power between good and evil, but sometimes there is a problem, sometimes the warrior, the wielder of the blade looses themselves in bloodlust, this is the most dangerous thing of all.
The holder of the blade at this time was the head of our family, Vladislau, he is the one that Abram Stoker based his work Dracula on. At the time he was nothing like the crazed monster you read about, and he was ancient, older than the oldest of our kind. Some believed he was the first, that he held our fates in his clawed hands. Most vampires are like Misrael, looking exactly like humans apart from white skin, black eyes and fangs, but the older you get the more the change affects you. Vladislau was a prime example, his skin was so white that there was no way he could pass for a human, he seemed to glow from within. His hands had also changed, the nails were black and came to fine points, looking like black teardrops, finally his fangs had grown so long that they were permanently showing on his lower lip. But he was different from other vampires, because he’d never been human
But enough, I must bore you with the details of my new family. There were few instances of interest that happen on the road for a month or so. But one night we suddenly veered off the road and started heading across the country of Eastern Europe with seemingly no purpose. When I asked Misrael why we had done this, why leave rich feeding grounds and head to the wilds, all I got were the words, It is time you learnt about your family. With that he led me deeper and deeper into forests and wilderness. It was unlike any I had seen before, trees knotted and twisted with age with moss hanging from their blackened branches like trailing beards. No birds sung, no creature stirred this place was dead to all but the trees. Misrael seemed to be leading me in another random wandering, yet he acted as if there was a set purpose to his travels. The more I questioned him the withdrawn he became, it was as if he didn’t want me to know, as if there was something awful ahead of us.
Things steadily got worse, I became hungry and was reduced to feeding on anything, carrion, rats, anything I could find. Misrael seemed to find my predicament most amusing. Young boys always eat the most disgusting things don’t you think? He’d say. I was far from pleased at his manner of making me feel foolish. It was just another insult to all the others I’d received from him. Misrael was not a gentle father in the least, he would clip me round the ear with the back of his hand if I didn’t move fast enough or did the slightest thing wrong. There was more than one occasion while we trailed through this seemingly never ending forest of gloom when I tried to raise my hand to him. He simply batted me away like an irritating fly, it was only at these times that I saw the vaguest hint of a smile. He seemed to find the times when I was belligerent and quarrelsome as some sort of mark of distinction. I wondered why this vampire who seemed to take offence at every little mistake, should take pride in my being difficult.
Finally after almost a week of hard trekking through that dark forest, which I now believe to be long gone since in all but the most desolate lands such forests are cut down, we began to hit open land, we were heading towards a great towering group of mountains. It was dark, we move only at night, while we could stand the sun, it still burnt us, but even then I could just see outlined against the pale moon a great stone keep, towers clawing at the sky like a deformed hand. There didn’t seem to be anything of interest other than the keep, which Misrael ad us heading straight for. Now I finally understood the purpose of our journey, this place was a home to our kind and I would finally learn more about what I was to become. As this thought struck me I aw the whole world change about me, not in a literal sense, for the stars still shone and the night was still dark to human eyes. But for me it did change, I was no longer the loner, blood son of a wandering vampire, I was part of something bigger than myself. I became a vampire, a Draconis and more importantly, I was Harkon, soon to be a terror of the night, or so I thought.
COMMENTS
-