by Ian Woodhead
“I thought you had gone,” he mumbled. Cade then saw another figure lying in front of the bookcase at the back of the room. “Mum?” he groaned, “Oh no, please, not you as well!”
Katy helped him to his feet. “Come on, we need to get out of here.”
“I can’t leave her!” he said running over to her prone body. Cade placed his hands on her arm, flinching at how cold she was. He caught his breath then slowly pulled her onto her back, trying not to cry at the sight of her face crunched into a bestial mask of pure malice.
She ran over to Cade, pulled him onto his feet, and led him towards the door. “Yes, you can, I’m sorry but she isn’t your mum anymore. That bitch almost had me when I came in here.”
He swallowed hard, grinding his teeth at the dull pain that now ran though both of his arms. None of this made sense. “Wait, I don’t understand, how did you stop her? Come to think of it, how the fuck did you manage to stop that thing from eating me?”
Katy smiled and kissed him, before dropping something into his hand. “I went through your kitchen cupboards first and look what I found.”
Cade looked down at the now empty tube of concentrated garlic paste in the palm of his hand. It took a great deal of restraint not to break out in hysterical laughter. Cade folded his fingers over the tube. “Sweetheart, you’re a fucking genius.”
She pointed to the torch thrown on the sofa. “I didn’t try the garlic on him, Cade, I shone that straight into his face. It appears that he’s not keen on bright light.” She looked at the woman on the floor. “You mum got the paste after she snatched the torch out of my hands.” She frowned. “We really need to go before he comes back, Cade.”
He looked across at his mother, watching her body twitch. His mum now felt like a stranger to him. Something had severed his emotional bond with the woman. He gazed at the wounds on his arms, wondering if that freak had infected him with something. Cade sighed. Why did he need to do that? According to him, Cade was born infected.
Cade walked back over and stared down at her face. There was no snarl now, all he saw was a peaceful looking woman who looked at rest. He then noticed the ugly red welt of blistered skin running across the underside of her arm. Cade guessed that was where the garlic paste hit her. He took one pace back when he saw her whole body shudder again.
“I’m so sorry, mum,” he whispered. “I don’t know what else to do. Please find some way to forgive me.” Cade kneeled down, grabbed her jaw and pulled in down, grimacing at the size of her canine teeth.
“What are you doing?” hissed the girl.
“I can’t let her continue now,” he whispered. Cade held the half-full paste directly over her open mouth. He counted to three then quickly squeezed the last of the contents into her mouth and jumped back when her eyes shot open. She sat up and screeched out in agony as hundreds of blisters bubbled up across her skin, before bursting apart, filling the air around the woman with a foul smelling red mist. Cade ran over to Katy, sobbing, not believing what he had just done. He allowed the girl to grab his wrist and pull him towards the front door.
Chapter Five
His own euphoria had long since left him, leaving Jalim Pyga desperate to fill his cavernous mouth to the brim with the sweet blood of some wandering beast. Just like the rest of the ones that were able to feast upon the offered flesh, he only managed to consume no more than a pathetic morsel.
“Do you remember advising me to veil my desires, Jalim?” His companion nervously coughed. “Well, should I not ask you to do the same?”
“I also told you that I would rip out your insides if I caught you sniffing around the inside of my head.”
“Jalim, please, I meant no disrespect. I did not intrude. Your craving for the blood is very strong. I suspect that even the moles beneath our feet would have picked up your thoughts.
He stopped his descent down the overgrown wooded slope and slowly turned his head, watching with amusement, as his fellow scout looked more akin to a frightened bunny rabbit than a ferocious vampire. Jalim reluctantly softened his features and bit back his harsh retort at the look of genuine concern etched upon the young vampire’s face.
It took him a few moments for his sluggish thoughts to make the right connections. In relative terms, Dylar Sallis, wasn’t long changed. A thousand years might have passed them by and, from what he had seen so far, their world had become an alien place. But, Dylar had only joined the Swarmer’s clan just a few weeks before their ultimate plan had gone disastrously wrong.
Dylar would, in due time, change his whole outlook and allow his recessive vampire blood to rise like oil in water. The inexperienced vampire would need to feast many times upon the blood of beasts for his true form gained prominence. Until that moment, Jalim would just have to tolerate this sallow excuse for a predator still thinking and acting like human food.
“I will take your words under advisement, Dylar,” he replied sardonically, attempting not to visibly sigh when his colleague beamed. Unlike him, the young vampire had yet to come down from his initial first tasting. When he did, the vampire would hit the ground with a tremendous crash. The after-effects of the first taste after the long sleep could even equate to the ecstasy rushing through their veins just after drinking from their first neck.
He swung his head back and gazed up into the tree canopy, watching the night creatures’ flit from branch to branch. Jalim listened to their minute hearts, imagining their minuscule amounts of hot blood running through their tiny bodies.
Despite Dylar’s nervous quip regarding the moles struck a chord. Jalim could sense very little activity under the earth. In fact, there seemed to be very little life inhabiting this forest. He knew why. That much had been obvious as soon as their clan had emerged into the open and gazed in confusion and infuriation at the impossible amount of human-built structures stretched across the horizon. The beasts had bred out of control, and as they advanced, the lesser animals had obviously decreased in numbers.
It made him sick to the stomach to find that their food now dominated the planet. How could that have happened? Their kind had not allowed that many breeders to flourish.
It would take them many decades; to bring the population under control, if that was even possible. These things were a plague.
He ground his teeth in frustration; there would be no chance of them regaining their dominance if their clan leader would not allow his vampires off the strangling leash.
“It is so good to feel the wind upon my face, Jalim. The scent of the animals and of the surrounding plants makes my blood sing.” The young vampire jumped up and snatched something out of the air. “This is just glorious.”
Jalim saw a piece of leathery wing poking though Dylar’s fingers and listened to the bat’s bones crush when Dylar squeezed his fist tight. He raised his hand and allowed the few drops of blood to land on his tongue.
“We should be running down the beasts, Dylar. This is not glorious at all. He has reduced us to the stage of mere parasites.” Jalim watched, disgusted, as his companion frantically licked off the animal’s blood from the palm of his hand. “Just look at you! That is just vile. Have you no respect?”
The other vampire just grinned. To Jalim, the fool just looked like some drunken youth who has just had his first taste of a virgin’s wet hole.
“He asked us all for just a few hours of patience, my friend.” Dylar threw the corpse into the undergrowth and took in another lungful of air. No, it really is glorious; he will make us all kings of this strange world, Jalim. The food will never end.” He ran over to him, his eyes shining. “Oh, how I wish I could have gone with one of the other two scout groups,”
“Are you not enjoying my company? Are you suggesting that I displease you in some way?” he growled, watching the vampire regress to that frightened rabbit. “Your stupidity and blind faith is the reason why we are stuck in the middle of nowhere while the others enjoy the taste of meat.”
He shook his head. “Jalim,” he said, “he
promised that we would all taste together.”
“You really are so naïve, Dylar. When he said those words, our courageous leader was not looking at us.” Jalim stopped a tree stump and made his way towards it. “Go collect some wood and ensure it is dry.”
“Why, are you cold?”
“Of course I’m not cold, you foolish boy,” he snapped. Jalim picked up a broken branch and threw it at his head. “It is not just moths that flames will attract.” He sat down and waited for the boy to disappear into the foliage. Jalim then ran over to the spot where Dylar had dropped the bat, picked up its shattered body and attempted the squeeze out some more of its bodily fluids. A few drops hit his tongue and the quantity paled in comparison to what he intended to catch tonight but the taste did help his own blood cool down a couple of degrees.
“Why are you still allowing that fool to treat you like a whipped dog?” he muttered, the words felt alien to him. Even the thought of being responsible of the loss of cohesion within the clan was unheard of. The clan’s strength lay in number, even if he could count that number upon toes and fingers.
The last time a clan split, it caused the Great War, a conflict that almost annihilated every vampire on the land. Jalim sat back down and thought back to the last night before their leader and a few survivors all felt the urge to take the long sleep.
The few Swarmers remaining had all congregated behind the burning remains of their last fortification. He, Healiod and Cranus were watching their last flesh dragon tear into the enemy clan’s regiment of beast fighters.
The huge soldiers were an amalgamation of assorted animal parts, sewed together and given pseudo-animation with pure vampire blood. A steel exoskeleton, part cage and part support, ensured no Swarmer could take them down with brute force or human supplied weapons.
Jalim’s strength, like his companions had left him, his broken body, covered with countless bites, blade wounds and shattered bones. His blood could no longer heal him. The unthinkable was taking place, he was going to die here. His last flesh dragon disappeared under the bodies of the beast fighters. It shredded at least half a dozen before the three remaining fighters, ripped open the monster with their bladed weapons.
He wanted to close his eyes. The moment of reckoning had finally come to pass. The fact that he had prophesised this moment even as the new leader had announced his scheme to rid them of the clan menace, now felt like a bitter victory. Nobody could win this.
Jalim lifted his head and watched their last Swarmer army attack the three beast soldiers. It was like watching three wolves dive into a herd of goats. Their vampires didn’t stand a chance. Despite the beast soldier’s extensive wounds, their armour kept them on their feet.
It did not surprise him to see their glorious leader staggering out of the massacre and stumble over the piles of dismembered corpses, running to their position. “His actions have killed our clan. He is unfit to rule.”
Both Cranus and Healiod growled at him and warned Jalim to still his traitorous mouth.
Jalim opened his eyes. The stench of death from that ancient battle left him. Desmonus had destroyed their clan, and he was also responsible for allowing the enemy to tear apart his beautiful creations. He glanced through the trees and watched Dylar make his way back to where he sat. The young vampire had escaped the worst of the battles. It seemed ironic to think that before the ultimate plan, before their number was cut from thousands to just a handful. Not even a desperate First Father would have contemplated changing such a weak willed and soft bodied child into one of their kind. Even with the vampire blood surging through his veins, Dylar was a pathetic specimen.
“I think I have enough to start to good fire,” he said. “Do you really think this will work? I mean, it won’t attract him as well?”
Their leader had forced him into a corner. Jalim could not allow that fiend to ground him into the dirt. The Swarmer clan was his by birthright. He could trace his lineage all the way back to the time before the clans split in two, whereas that mongrel son of a diseased pig currently making a fool of him, was already set on the path to destruction.
He refused to accept that at least one of their enemies had awoken as well. He had just dismissed the thought of an enemy clan soldier walking through the landscape of this strange world, no doubt already recruiting. Regardless of what their leader had informed everyone of this not being so. The others took his confident words as truth.
It did not surprise Jalim to find that the young vampire had already set about building up the fire. He worked with quiet efficiency. Jalim guessed that the boy intended to impress him with at least one skill that he had retained from his human life. Would he be able to convince Dylar to throw off the clan shackles? After all, the leader had recruited him. His vampire blood ran through Dylar’s system. Convincing this timid worm to climb from under the leader’s wing would be a difficult task.
Even so, Jalim would have to attempt it, if he could not turn him than he would have to dine on Dylar. His lips dripped with drool at that thought, killing their own kind was another sacred vow that they were all supposed to uphold. He turned his head, watching the moon shine through the leafless branches.
He was not as foolish as his leader thought. This wasn’t a scouting mission, it was banishment. Their leader expected them to just whither and die like old berries on the branch. Desmonus had no need for his skill, not anymore. He had always been jealous of Jalim’s ancient skill of manipulating the flesh. Desmonus believed that that dark art belonged in the past.
There was nothing out here to scout.
The boy sat back and gazed up at him. “There, as requested.” He turned back around and threw a couple of twigs into the small fire. “I was told never to speak of this, Jalim but, there are occasions when I do miss my human existence. I am sure that these thoughts are alien to you now, Jalim. I know you have being a vampire for countless human lifetimes.”
Jalim watched the flames dance over the twigs, keeping silent, waiting for Dylar to apologise. His proposition would gain weight if Jalim could drive a wedge between the young vampire and the one that turned him.
“Have I offended you?”
“How were you caught, Dylar?”
“It was my stupid compassion that snared me. We all knew just how dangerous it was to venture out of the house after dark. New rumours of Swarmer bands penetrating clan territory spread through the town ever day. I was, still am, a stupid youth. I considered these talks to be just gasps of bad air, expelled from the mouth of the market fishwives. We were under the protection of the clan, we gave in blood and livestock, we were quite safe.”
There were not many protected human towns that had not been hit by the Swarmers. Only the ones in the two inner domains could still boast full protection. The clans had just about given up out the outer domains and left the beasts to fend for themselves. Jalim had personally stripped three human towns for manufacture.
At the time, he had not been aware that their leader had risked everything to raid the inner domain towns. Then again, they kept Jalim out of all major operations, they just did not trust him.
“We all knew that the war was getting closer, even the elders believed that we should prepare to relocate closer to the castles. Despite it meaning that we would lose everything. But, even slowly starving was far better than either getting drained or ending up as part of the Swarmer flesh dragon.” Dylar added some more twigs to the fire. He turned his head to stare at Jalim. “I don’t understand why I am feeling hesitant to continue. He told me that these attached feeling to my past would leave me.”
“I’m guessing that he told you many stories, Dylar.” He leaned forward and ran a clawed finger along the top of the young vampire’s ear. “The passing of the night will not stop still, Dylar. Continue with your recollection.”
The vampire pushed the last twig into the fire. “It was my goat that got me caught. She was due to give birth at any time and, because she was my first one, I wanted to be with her.
Both my parents had heard the nightwatchers sound the warning bugle. I had no idea though, both me and my sister were in the shed, alone with the goat, waiting and watching.”
Jalim felt a forgotten part of his anatomy stir at the mention of a female. “Why do you hesitate?”
“Two of them smashed through the solid wooden door with ease. I didn’t even have enough time to move out of the way before I was grabbed and thrown across the barn. The vampires might have been able to destroy the wood with their fists but my tender body slammed into the far wall and I felt something crack, it wasn’t the wood though, that sound came from within me.”
Dylar moaned softly. “The pain that rushed through me was unlike anything that I had experienced. Darkness swept over me and I urged oblivion to take the agony away. Before I did close my eyes, my last image was of the two vampires tearing off my sister’s rough clothing.”
He nodded to himself, Jalim would have liked to have been there, “Wait, was she pretty?”
Dylar nodded. “Yes, most boys and some of the men wanted her.” He shook his head and sighed. “I awoke, some time later, I felt no pain, I knew that they had fed on my blood while I slept. This fact did not bother me, nor did the sight of my sister’s mutilated body lying sprawled in the bloodstained straw. Can you believe that the sight of my headless goat lying by her feet caused me to break down and weep? The ones who had done this deed thought that me, weeping over some animal’s corpse was very amusing.” Dylar sighed. “I never saw anyone from my town again, the last I heard was that a few days later after they had escorted me out, the Deathgazer clan broke their decades old promise to protect the town and butchered every inhabitant.”
“He should not have turned you into one of our kind. You were too young. If I had been there, I would have slaughtered you, Dylar. Your blood would have given me such strength. Once I had finished, I would have enjoyed your sister before drinking from her too.”