Matteo gave the signal and before they knew it, the world was rushing by in a blur. Jenda’s legs pumped and she could feel the exhilaration in her veins. The vampire blood made her fast and seemed to rejoice at the physical exertion. She and Matteo ran side by side, two animals lost in the adrenaline. Soborgne, however, discovered she was as equally blessed in strength and speed as she was in mind reading. She sprinted ahead of them with her raven hair flying loose from its wrap and whipping wildly behind her.
By the time Jenda and Matteo reached the car, Soborgne was sitting on the ground crying openly. Jenda immediately went to her side, instinctually knowing that the sight of the car had crashed through all the new wonder and amazement of being a vampire. The sight of the black Mercedes SL550 had sent Soborgne plummeting down the road of realization. She was dead. She was dead to her parents, dead to her old life, dead to everyone but Jenda and Matteo.
Matteo stepped forward awkwardly. In all his years, he had never felt as inadequate as he did at this moment. He could read minds, fight epic battles, and destroy lives but trying to understand not just one but two young women, it was just more than he could handle. “If I have done something, if there is some problem, I am sorry.” He spoke quietly and sincerely. “If there is something I can do, dear Soborgne, please tell me.”
This only made Soborgne weep harder. Her hair hung in her face and her small shoulders shook with the muffled sobs. Blood tears dripped from her eyes as she looked up at Matteo, trying to let him know that it could not be helped. Jenda stepped up as she always did and began to explain to Matteo why the car had so upset her friend. “It had been her most loved possession and her parents had given it to her as a gift. The car was not just a car but also a large part of who she was. You couldn’t have known. It’s just uncanny how you would choose such a car to acquire. It’s not a common car, so it was a big shock for her.”
Matteo looked so different than the strong, powerful vampire that he was. He looked like a young man who was both ashamed and a bit frightened. “It was no accident that I chose this car but I swear it was with good intentions and not bad. While I was out today, I got the most vivid picture of it in my mind. I thought that maybe you had discovered your gifts of telepathy and that is what you wanted.”
Soborgne’s sobs turned to laughter and Jenda and Matteo jumped at the unexpected sound. “Jenda! She hated my car. I think she used to call it an overpriced death trap. That was me! I was trying to send Jenda an image when I discovered I could see what she was talking about in my head.” Apparently over her small breakdown, Soborgne leapt up, jumped in the driver’s seat and asked, “Aren’t we in a hurry here?”
Jenda and Matteo, still laughing, looked at each other for a confused moment and then hopped in the backseat of the car. Matteo leaned up between the seats to help Soborgne enter in their destination on the GPS. Matteo explained that the compound was actually on the border of the Brown County State Park, which was three hours from Fairview. It would take them all night to reach Harrisburg, PA. From there they would board a plane to Budapest.
“Matteo, what about Soborgne.” Jenda shouted. “She can’t travel during the day. Won’t she…won’t she…well you know, burn up?” She shot her friend an apologetic look for not knowing how to ask in a more politically correct way.
“Jenda, stop! Stop thinking about it. OMG this whole mind image thing is horrible. Please do not think of me as a crispy critter anymore.” The words were spoken in a light tone but Jenda could feel the tension and apprehension rolling off her friend.
“I assumed, my dear ladies that we would simply share our blood with Soborgne and she would have no restrictions as we have none.” Matteo spoke as if it was just a matter of opening an umbrella. Simple and easy to do with little or no thought.
Jenda began to agree with him immediately, “Of course, why didn’t I think of it.”
Then a muttered “No” came from the front seat. Soborgne was shaking her head in disagreement. She glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the shock on the faces of her only two friends. “I’m sorry, I just don’t want to. It doesn’t feel right, maybe later but not now. Definitely not now.” She couldn’t explain to them why. She didn’t know herself what the reason was. She knew it was somehow connected to that strange dream but she couldn’t remember it now. In fact, the whole dream seemed to be hazy and without substance inside her mind. She wanted to cry as she tried to recall the important words the man she loved had spoken. It was all fading so fast.
Jenda was going to argue. She was going to explain to Soborgne how being immune to the sun was safer and more convenient considering their current situation but Matteo gave her no chance. “As you wish, Sobo. After all, it is your choice to make. It will make no difference. We will be traveling by private jet to Budapest, which will not require much accommodation.”
Soborgne sighed in relief. Something deep inside her relaxed, knowing that she would not become like Jenda and Matteo. She would be confined to darkness and powerless by day but it felt right. She knew she would hinder them, she may even anger them after a while, but she would not give in. Whatever the familiar stranger from her dream had said and whoever he had been, she knew it was important for her not to change.
With their travel plans settled and a long ride ahead of them, Matteo decided it was time to educate the girls on what they had become and to share with them the vampire history as he knew it. Not all vampires were as sick and twisted as Belle and Augustine. Some lived peacefully in communes or covens as they were called in the old days, some lived isolated from the world, many were great scholars, and others chose to live among the human population without harming them. Unfortunately, the story that must be told now was not of these genteel vampires. It was the story of the birth of the most demented and psychopathic sect known to vampire kind. Before he could decide how to begin, his lovely Jenda gave him the opening he needed. “Tell us Matteo, why are we going to Budapest? Why not somewhere like Ireland, Paris, or Rome? What can Budapest have that so many other places don’t?”
“Budapest offers us sanctuary from the Dracul. The Dracul is a secret order, in its beginning it was an order of kings and nobles that swore allegiance to the cross. Vampires soon infiltrated it and began changing the royals one by one. It was a strike against God to turn his most devout followers into blood drinkers. Now, hundreds of years later, the Dracul is completely made up of vampire royalty. They are the oldest and most powerful of us all. The Dracul are the enforcers of vampire law. There are only a few laws. The first and most important is not to kill one of our own kind unless in self-defense, unless it is part of the passing ritual and they have decided to leave this world on their own violation, or unless they have stood trial. We have broken this law and now we will be hunted until we are brought to stand before the council. In Hungary, we will be hidden right under the dragon’s nose.” Matteo settled back into the seat, his arms wrapped securely around Jenda’s body, and stared out the window at nothing at all. He began to tell the tale of the vampire.
34
Many vampire truths are mixed in with human myths. Facts are intertwined with fantasy and it becomes difficult to decipher between the two. Despite wiser vampire’s attempts to hide from the world and keep our existence hidden there are always those who step forth into the figurative light and want to claim what they consider to be our rightful place. Throughout the millenniums, the facts discovered by the human kind have been twisted and retold to create monsters for religion, entertainment, and to frighten naughty children. It is time that you, my two fledglings, learn the true history of the vampire.
In the beginning, there was God. On the sixth day of creation, he molded a man and woman in his own image. They were not Adam and Eve, but Adam and Lilith. Adam, being a man, believed that Lilith should be to him like a servant. Lilith, being created from the same material and at the same moment as Adam, believed that the two must be equal. When Adam ordered her to be submissive to him in every way, Lilit
h became angry and called upon the true name of God. She then left the garden and hid by the Red Sea.
God sent three angels to bring Lilith back but she refused. She would not live as a servant to a man; she wished only to serve God. God became angry with her and threatened to punish her severely for not obeying him but still Lilith refused. The myths claim that Lilith then became the mother of demons, the murderess of human children, and many other things. This is not true. God banished Lilith from the garden and cursed her to walk forever in the night. He cast her from his heavenly presence with the vengeance that only a god can have and refused to look upon her again. Lilith wandered in the wastelands between the earth and heaven until she found another soul who was cast out as she was.
After his failure with Lilith, God created Eve to be Adam’s mate so that the rib that they shared would bind them. Eve was not appalled by Adam’s request and together they lived in the Garden. After Eve committed the sin of eating the forbidden fruit, she and Adam produced their first-born son, Cain. Later another son was born and this was Abel. As the boys grew to be men, Cain took a wife, who bore him a son, and became a great cultivator of the land. Abel did not take a wife and became a great sheppard.
One day, God appeared to the two men and asked that they provide him with an offering made from the first harvest of Cain’s lands and the first born of Abel’s flock. Both Cain and Abel worked hard to produce a beautiful bounty. Cain worked the land until his hands bled while Abel bred his most prized rams with his most beautiful ewes to create perfect lambs. As the day approached that the men would present their offerings to God, they gathered the best of their harvest.
Abel would present the best of his flock to the Lord and offer up their fat to him. He stood proudly watching over the animals, choosing which should go to slaughter for his god. This is when Cain approached Abel and explained to his brother his worries. “Brother, I fear that if we offer to the Lord the best and majority of our bounty that my family will starve.”
“Worry not, Cain. The Lord will provide.” Abel’s answer hung between the brothers like a divider of stone.
“I must worry,” said Cain. “I have a wife and child to provide for.”
This angered Abel. “You love your mortal mate and child more than you love our true father and Lord?”
Cain could not lie. “I care deeply for my wife and son and I will not have them starve so that I may appease a deity.”
With this, Cain went on his way to choose his own bounty.
At last, the day came and both men gathered on the mound. They laid out before them their offerings and awaited God’s blessings. God looked down upon the bounty presented to him and to Abel he offered great praise. His offering was suited for a god and he approved greatly. A warm light shone from heaven onto the head of Abel and he rejoiced.
God then turned to Cain and spoke gravely to him. “You have chosen your offering well but your division is a sin. Out of selfish concern you have defied me, providing yourself with an offering far greater than what you have presented to me.”
Cain begged for forgiveness and attempted to plead his case to the Lord. He talked of his love for the land, for his wife, and for his child. He cried as he presented his fears of starvation and pleaded that God understand that what he did was not a sin because it was born of love. This only angered the Lord further, a cold light shone from heaven on to Cain’s head, and he wept with grief.
In the days that followed, Cain stood in the shadow of Abel. Abel’s pride at being accepted by God only increased Cain’s jealousy and anger. God warned Cain that sin crouched at the door to his heart but Cain turned away, still aching from the blow that had been dealt him. It is then that Cain laid his plans. He would murder his brother. If a vengeful god would not heed to acts born of love, he would surely heed those born of hate. Cain lured Abel away and struck him down. Cain knew that he would be punished for this act and all that he loved would be stripped away. He believed the sacrifice of everything dear to him might prove that he was pure of heart. Despite his beliefs, the hurt of what he had done bore down on him and he wandered away, weeping wildly for the loss of his brother, his god, his wife, and his child.
When God discovered what Cain had done, he appeared before Cain and denounced him for the heinous sin. God cursed Cain as a slayer of his brother and bound him to spend the rest of his life (which was endless) to wander, a vagrant, in a far away land. He could never return to the land of his parents, and the earth, which swallowed the blood of his brother, would never yield to Cain’s hands again. When Cain protested that others would harm him because of what he did, God marked him so that whoever slayed Cain would perish.
Lilith, still dwelling by the Red Sea, was drawn away from her haven by a calling of a forlorn soul. She did not know his name, nor did she understand what force was pulling her to him. She thought that perhaps God had forgiven her for her stubbornness and created a mate for her that may be suitable. She rejoiced at the thought that she was back in the favor of her Lord and called out to him in praise and thanks. Instead of God, the three angels he had sent to fetch her before appeared to her. They laughed at her happiness and told her that God had not created her a mate. They told her that she was still unwanted and impure. The pull that she felt was for Adam’s first born who had murdered his brother and been cast out. Like pulls to like, was their only answer when she asked why she would feel such a desire to seek out the son of Adam.
This news greatly upset Lilith. She had hoped that her isolation had earned her redemption, but instead this new situation only proved that she would never be offered forgiveness. With new determination, Lilith sought to find the son of Adam. They would be bound together by the shame and hurt of being banished from the garden. The Lord surely would not sentence her to a life of solitude. As she walked through the land, the angels came to her again and again. They told her to stop searching for Cain. “God will be further displeased. You must not seek out this heathen. You will be further punished.”
Lilith ignored them or shouted to them to tell God that she would desist only if he appeared to her himself. On and on she searched, following the pull in her heart. At night when she dreamed, he came to her. It was a union beyond that of man and woman. Lilith could feel that she belonged to him and him to her. Each morning when she woke, she was driven into wandering further by the need to find him. She needed to still the ache in her heart.
After she had searched all of the surrounding lands, Lilith stumbled into a new country that she did not know. She was worn and tired from her long journey and decided to rest by a tranquil pool of water. The three angels came again and warned her, “Lilith, you are in the land of Nod. You must turn back now. If you do not give up this notion and quit seeking out the son of Adam then you will surely anger God.”
Lilith became angry and cursed the angels again. She tried to cast them away with her insulting words and told them to never return. When the angels merely hovered before her weeping, Lilithbecame enraged and called out, “Cain, son of Adam, slayer of thy brother, banished by God; I call you to my side to spite these angels and a god who has turned his back on us.”
As if by magic, Cain appeared at the edge of the woods and walked slowly towards Lilith. She could see recognition in his eyes and knew that he had dreamed of her as well. The angels were so frightened by Cain’s appearance that they vanished, leaving the sound of weeping to echo in the silence. Lilith was afraid that he would disappear. After all this time, could it really be him that she was seeing or was it a dream? Cain cautiously moved forward, each step kept in measure until he stood directly before Lilith. When their eyes met, he knew deep in his soul that this was real and she knew the same. He fell to his knees before her and spoke the honorable vow that all male vampires still present to their chosen mates to this day.
“I give to you my heart so that you may do with it as you will. I give to you my soul because no other deserves it as you do. I give to you my body to strengthen you and
bring you bliss if that is what you wish. Most of all I give to you my blood for it burns for you always.”
In return, Lilith insisted that Cain stand beside her and not kneel, for she believed they should be equal in all things. She looked deep into his eyes and repeated the vow to him. Thus, they were wed not before God but bound nonetheless. The two original sinners came together still in search of love and acting upon faith in that love rather than faith in their god.
God knew of their union and yet he did not interfere. His angels wept and cried that they should not be allowed to remain together but God said nothing and did nothing. His only answer was to remind the angels that he had chosen to give all his children, even those he banished, free will. After all, he had his hands full with a full-blown, heavenly civil war. The angels did not bother Lilith anymore and she and Cain took God’s silence as a blessing to their union.
Even though the three angels did not appear to Lilith, they kept a close watch on her and Cain. They did not trust them and were wary of what might come of their union. Because there is no time in heaven or hell, no one knows how long it was before they finally saw the fruit of their worries come forth. Lilith began longing for a child. She often watched human women with their own babes and she wanted one badly. Cain missed his own child and shared in Lilith’s desire.
Though they tried for many years, they could not conceive. Lilith was distraught and wept, claiming it was another punishment from God. Cain, determined to give Lilith what she most desired, took her back to the Red Sea where they spoke to Asmodeus, the father of all demons. Asmodeus was known to be a trickster and to love games of chance and torture. Using this, Cain tricked Asmodeus in to granting Lilith one wish and that wish was to mother a child. Cain bet Asmodeus that he could be locked in a tomb with five demons for three days without a weapon and survive. Asmodeus, believing Cain to be mad and having never heard of the mark laid on Cain by God, agreed to the bet. Lilith cried and begged Cain not to go through with it but one could not simply back out on a bet with the father of all demons.
Requiem of Humanity Page 18